Loosing Weight: Not Always a Good Thing

Don't be too Quick to Congratulate Someone for Loosing Weight

According to the National Eating Disorders Association, ten million women and one million men are living with anorexia and/or bulimia. And it is likely that millions more are living with one of these disorders in secret, since illnesses related to food, especially bulimia, lend themselves to very secretive behavior.

So when we actively and publicly praise someone for his or her weight loss (especially young women/girls), are we praising someone for a healthy and balanced approach to living or someone who is facing a critical, mental health crisis? Are we mistakenly encouraging someone to continue a process that has allowed them to lose weight, a process that will, if gone unchecked, lead to their death?
But I'm not just talking about someone with a clinical diagnosis. Women are constantly confronted with a barrage of incredibly unhealthy body images in the media, so even if someone isn't going as far as binging, purging and starving themselves, that doesn't mean they don't require the same restraint from us when it comes to their weight loss.
And even when we think we are fully aware (although we are never truly fully aware) that someone we know has been approaching their weight loss efforts in a healthy, balanced way, the way in which we praise them can inflict further pain on what is already a painful process.
We almost think it rude if we don't say something about someone's weight loss -- as if we aren't acknowledging his or her hard work. And along with the pounds that someone has shed, we also think that person has shed the pain of the past -- an often mistaken assumption.