HAES® – Health at Every Size®

HAES® is a non-diet approach that shifts the focus away from weight and encourages behaviors that support individual health, including explicit body acceptance. It is an evidence-based philosophy that affirms everyone—regardless of body shape, size, weight or BMI—can be healthy.

According to the Association for Size Diversity and Health (ASDAH):

“Health should be conceived as a resource or capacity available to all regardless of health condition or ability level, and not as an outcome or objective of living. Pursuing health is neither a moral imperative nor an individual obligation, and health status should never be used to judge, oppress or determine the value of an individual.  The HAES® approach honors the healing power of social connections, evolves in response to the experiences and needs of a diverse community, and grounds itself in a social justice framework.”

HAES® focuses on health indicators that are not weigh- or BMI-related because when there is a weight loss lens applied to one’s health goals, research shows this has a negative impact on one’s health outcomes in the long term.^{1, 2, 3, 4}