Question for mods more than suggestion

[glitterglaze]

Mods,

Would a support group thread focused on sane weightloss be against the culture of this board? I really want to underline -sane- here. Here are my thoughts:

On the one hand, one could make such a thread and put trigger warnings. On the other hand, just the fact of seeing such a thread can be guilt-inducing and triggering for people.

The reason why I'm not simply staying on the side of caution and not making the thread is that I think a thread like that can be very beneficial. I feel like my weight is affecting my quality of life negatively in multiple ways, and I would like a safe space where I can pursue improving my life in this way with others who are committed to going through the shame and the self-hatred and the fraught histories we all have around this. I would appreciate a space where others can be, "ah! ah! you're trying to hate yourself into being healthy again, quit it!" Or, "you're conflating your self-worth with the success you have in improving one of many areas of your life. Stop!" Or, "yup, makes sense that coming from this and this place and having witnessed that and that would make weight stuff really hard. But go us, we're awesome!"

I know CA is a no weight loss talk space, sane or otherwise, so it makes sense if FoCA would be as well. What are your thoughts?

[M.J.]

Hello Glitterglaze,

Thank you for your suggestion. We have thought long and hard on whether we want to host discussions relating to weight-loss on this board and we have ultimately decided against it for several reasons.

- Weight-loss and diet discussions are everywhere. The internet has very few spaces that are safe from diet talk. We'd like to be one of those spaces.
- We have strict rules about not giving medical advice on the forum and discussions on weight-loss will frequently slide into that area.
- We are not professionals with the adequate knowledge to moderate such discussions. Hosting a group or a forum on that topic is ideally done by professionals who have proper education (as PT's, nutritionists, doctors, nurses etc.). Weight-loss discussions require knowledge about what the facts are, what is woo and made-up and how to conduct weight-loss safely. They also need to be able to spot the signs of someone engaged in eating disordered thought-patterns. The entire diet industry is pretty much mirrors and light and self-hate and almost everyone who enters discussions on weight-loss will have been taught things that are just flat-out wrong, or internalized harmful messages about what they ought to be able to achieve in the area.

For these reasons we have decided to not host discussions on weight-loss here at FOCA.

We really appreciate that you and so many others love FOCA and find it a place where you can find support for a lot of things, but FOCA cannot be all things to all people.

On a personal note I can recommend you to check out the support group "Eating The Food" on facebook, which I think matches what you're looking for. it is run by health care professionals committed to fostering a body positive, shame-free weight-loss environment based on science and rooting out woo and inaccurate information. It is obviously not a safe space like FOCA in terms of talking about numbers, weight, how to lose weight etc. so due warning for anyone who looks them up, but it's the best environment I've seen for hosting such discussions. Might be worth checking out.

[glitterglaze]

Thanks, shall not do :)

And thanks for the recommendation!