Your Body Is Not the Problem… Weight Stigma Is
Why redefining health means letting go of the scale and befriending your body
By Tomesha Campbell, FNC, PN1
“You don’t look like a cross-country runner.”
If it weren’t for the fact that we were standing in a field waiting for our race to start, you could have heard a pin drop after that statement. It wasn’t meant to be cruel, but it said the quiet part out loud. I didn’t look like the other runners.
While I brushed it off in the moment, it planted a seed. A seed that would grow into years of questioning my body and chasing thinness as proof of health.
When Health Became Synonymous With Thinness
Whether you’ve laced up for a race or not, a comment about your body, or someone else’s, has stuck with you. Maybe it was a grandparent, a doctor, or even a passing remark from a stranger. Those messages add up until “health” gets reduced to one thing, thinness.
The problem? The constant pursuit of thinness trains us to ignore our bodies.
At least, that has been my experience when working with my health coaching clients.
Fatigue gets brushed off, pain gets minimized, and real conditions can be overlooked. When the priority becomes what our bodies look like, it’s much easier to dismiss all the warning signs that something else (worse) might be happening.
Before I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and Sjögren’s syndrome, my symptoms were dismissed for years. When I went to my doctor about my food intolerances and sensitivities, she showed little concern.
In her mind, I just needed to lose weight, as if shedding pounds could cure what I would later learn were symptoms of my autoimmune diseases.
I knew then and now know that losing weight isn’t a magic cure for anything. Instead, focusing on weight loss only masked the real issue: my autoimmune diseases.
For people in higher-weight bodies, weight stigma often shapes the care they receive.
The Real Cost of Weight Stigma
When weight becomes the metric, health care gets distorted. Conditions go undiagnosed, patients get blamed, and trust in our health care system is further eroded.
However, my story is far from unique. Research shows that people with larger bodies often receive delayed diagnoses or inadequate care simply because weight is seen as the problem to “fix.”
But the truth is your body was never the problem. Weight stigma is.
Reading Fearing the Black Body by Dr. Sabrina Strings, PhD, drove home the message that weight stigma doesn’t make people healthier. Instead, discrimination contributes to the harm we aim to eliminate as health professionals and advocates.
Once I started to see that weight stigma was the real problem contributing to ill health, I couldn’t unsee it.
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Redefining Health Without the Scale
Letting go of the idea of thinness as the definition of health isn’t easy in a culture obsessed with weight. Even though I’ve come a long way in my own health journey, there are moments when I still grapple with being in a larger body than I used to be in.
But two things can be true. You can desire being in a smaller body without taking intentional action to lose weight.
Once I accepted that reality, I realized I could help my clients see health differently. When we stopped chasing the scale, health started to look like:
Having more energy for the things you love
Sleeping through the night
Lifting heavier at the gym
Experiencing less joint pain
Watching medical markers improve
In other words, I demonstrated what happens when we change the lens. Health becomes about living a fulfilling life, not just shrinking our bodies.
Befriending Your Body
The most challenging but rewarding work you can do is treating your body as an ally, not an enemy.
For the most part, my autoimmune symptoms are manageable. However, on those rare occasions when I am experiencing flares, I no longer see my symptoms as failures. Instead, I see them as signals and an invitation to listen deeper.
I’ve also become a lot more comfortable in a larger body. Even today, I still don’t look like a cross-country runner. But my body has carried me through autoimmune flare-ups, healing, and strength I didn’t know I had.
Yours can too.
So, wherever you are in your health journey, remember that your body was never broken. The system is.
 | A guest post by
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Thank you so much for the opportunity to write this for the community. Hope it resonates!