![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
First of all, I want to say that I've been enjoying your weight training course immensely. Your teaching style meshes well with my learning style, and I've started actively looking forward to classes, which is saying a lot for an 8am start time. The issue I want to address here isn't actually a big deal for me personally; I just want to speak up on behalf of people with less comfortable body images than mine (which I think is most people) who might be negatively affected by a conversation like the one we had today.
I don't normally spend much time tooting the health-at-every-size horn, because I understand that for most people, health gain is correlated with at least some weight loss. And I have no objections to full-class discussions of how weight training affects body weight, because it's relevant information and because I know that a lot of people do have weight-loss goals and are particularly interested in hearing that sort of thing. But when someone tells you in a one-on-one conversation that their goals are strictly strength-oriented and they're not there to lose weight, and you keep saying, "yeah, but the weight loss is a bonus!", that sends a message I don't think you're trying to send.
As I'm sure you're aware, being as physiologically focused as you are, different people have different healthy body weights. I spent a year commuting 18-30 miles a week on my bike, and I was much healthier and stronger, but my body didn't look any different. And I was fine with that; as I said, I have a good relationship with my body. I care about what it can do, not what it's shaped like. But most people my size aren't as comfortable in their skin as I am, and hearing reassurances that exercise will result in weight loss when it might not can be very discouraging for them, especially when our culture is so singlemindedly focused on weight over any other measure of health.
Like I said, I don't normally bother trying to talk to people about this stuff. But you're a teacher, and you have a lot of power when it comes to people's mindsets. So if you have another student who's trying to shed the pressure and focus on the pounds they can pick up instead of the pounds they've lost, I hope you'll keep this in mind.
Thanks for listening, and I'll see you Wednesday!
I don't normally spend much time tooting the health-at-every-size horn, because I understand that for most people, health gain is correlated with at least some weight loss. And I have no objections to full-class discussions of how weight training affects body weight, because it's relevant information and because I know that a lot of people do have weight-loss goals and are particularly interested in hearing that sort of thing. But when someone tells you in a one-on-one conversation that their goals are strictly strength-oriented and they're not there to lose weight, and you keep saying, "yeah, but the weight loss is a bonus!", that sends a message I don't think you're trying to send.
As I'm sure you're aware, being as physiologically focused as you are, different people have different healthy body weights. I spent a year commuting 18-30 miles a week on my bike, and I was much healthier and stronger, but my body didn't look any different. And I was fine with that; as I said, I have a good relationship with my body. I care about what it can do, not what it's shaped like. But most people my size aren't as comfortable in their skin as I am, and hearing reassurances that exercise will result in weight loss when it might not can be very discouraging for them, especially when our culture is so singlemindedly focused on weight over any other measure of health.
Like I said, I don't normally bother trying to talk to people about this stuff. But you're a teacher, and you have a lot of power when it comes to people's mindsets. So if you have another student who's trying to shed the pressure and focus on the pounds they can pick up instead of the pounds they've lost, I hope you'll keep this in mind.
Thanks for listening, and I'll see you Wednesday!
