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}