Weight Loss and Eating Disorder Recovery: Can the Two Go Together?
Many individuals enter eating disorder recovery with mixed feelings about their bodies. It’s not uncommon to wonder:
“Can I recover and still lose weight?”
“What if my body changes in ways I’m uncomfortable with?”
“Is it possible to heal my relationship with food and still want weight loss?”
These are honest, valid questions—and they deserve honest, compassionate answers. But they also require a shift in focus: away from body size, and toward what recovery actually means.
What Does Recovery Truly Mean?
At its core, eating disorder recovery is not about reaching a certain weight—it's about reclaiming your life. It's about restoring your health, flexibility, relationships, joy, and sense of self—independent of how your body looks.
True recovery includes:
Responding to your body’s cues without guilt or fear
Letting go of rigid food rules
Allowing your body to settle at the size it’s meant to be
Reducing anxiety, isolation, and compulsions around eating
Making peace with food and movement
Developing self-worth that isn’t tied to your appearance
If a weight-loss goal remains central, it can become difficult—if not impossible—to fully heal from disordered eating.
Why Weight Loss Goals Can Undermine Recovery
1. They reinforce disordered beliefs
Even if framed as "health" or "self-care," a goal of intentional weight loss can reinforce the belief that thinner is better, or that your body must change to be acceptable. These beliefs often lie at the heart of eating disorders.
“Trying to pursue weight loss while recovering from an eating disorder is like trying to heal from a fire while still playing with matches.”
2. They keep you in a restrictive mindset
Even subtle restrictions (cutting portions, skipping meals, over-exercising) in the name of weight control can reignite a restrict–binge–shame cycle, or lead to obsessive thinking and relapse.
3. They interfere with body trust
Recovery is about learning to trust your body to guide how much, when, and what to eat—not override its signals for the sake of external goals. Weight loss efforts require disconnecting from those cues, which is counter to intuitive eating and sustainable healing.
4. They may mask ongoing disordered behavior
Some individuals pursue "wellness" or "lifestyle changes" as a socially acceptable form of control. These efforts can look “healthy” on the outside, but they often reflect fear, rigidity, and avoidance—not healing.
But What If I’m in a Larger Body?
This is a deeply important question—and one that’s too often ignored in treatment spaces. People in larger bodies may:
Be praised for restrictive behaviors that would be flagged in smaller bodies
Be overlooked for diagnoses like anorexia or atypical anorexia
Feel dismissed by providers or pressured to lose weight, even when it’s harmful
Eating disorders do not discriminate by size, and no one should be asked to shrink to access care or dignity.
Recovery in a larger body is just as valid—and important—as recovery in any other body. The goal should be healing your relationship with food and your body, not changing the size of that body to fit societal ideals.
What About Medical Concerns?
Sometimes providers recommend weight loss for issues like high blood pressure, joint pain, or diabetes. But research increasingly shows that behavioral changes—not weight loss itself—drive improved health outcomes (Bacon & Aphramor, 2011).
A weight-inclusive approach focuses on:
Nourishing, regular meals
Joyful or accessible movement
Stress management
Improved sleep
Reducing shame and stigma
These factors support health in any body size, and don’t require restriction or weight-focused goals.
What If I Still Want to Lose Weight?
It’s okay to feel that way—most people in our culture are taught to. Body grief, discomfort, and longing for control are normal parts of recovery.
What matters is how we respond to those feelings:
Can you get curious about your desire for weight loss, without acting on it?
Can you hold space for body discomfort, without turning to restriction?
Can you focus on how you want to feel, rather than what you want to weigh?
A skilled therapist or dietitian can help you explore these questions safely.
A Gentle Reframe: What If Your Body’s Not the Problem?
If your body could speak, what would it say?
Would it ask for kindness? Rest? Nourishment?
Would it tell you that the problem was never your shape, but how you were taught to see yourself?
Your body has always been on your side. Recovery asks us to listen to it, not punish it. It’s not easy—but it’s possible. And worth it.
Final Thoughts: Can You Recover and Still Lose Weight?
Here’s the honest answer: pursuing intentional weight loss while recovering from an eating disorder creates a conflict that can undermine healing. That doesn’t mean your feelings about your body are wrong—it means the way through them isn't shrinking. It’s expanding: your compassion, your freedom, your life.
Recovery invites you to choose nourishment over numbers, trust over control, connection over comparison.
You don’t have to love your body right away—but you can learn to care for it, even if it’s uncomfortable.
And that? That’s where true healing begins.
References
Bacon, L., & Aphramor, L. (2011). Weight science: Evaluating the evidence for a paradigm shift. Nutrition Journal, 10(9).
Mehler, P. S., & Andersen, A. E. (2015). Eating Disorders: A Guide to Medical Care and Complications. Johns Hopkins University Press.
Tribole, E., & Resch, E. (2020). Intuitive Eating: A Revolutionary Anti-Diet Approach.
Tylka, T. L., Annunziato, R. A., et al. (2014). The weight-inclusive versus weight-normative approach to health: Evaluating the evidence for prioritizing well-being over weight loss. Journal of Obesity, 2014.
