Why You Will Never Find Before & After Pictures On My Website

Diana Marlin, RD, LDN

Weight loss before & after pictures are all over social media. To me, before & after pictures signify everything that is wrong with diet culture. We take a human being with a beautifully complex life and boil everything down to two pictures...two snapshots in time. The problem with this is that an after picture implies a finish line, and this mindset sets people up to believe that wellness is a destination, when really it is a lifelong journey.

Another issue is that these pictures do NOT give us the whole story. How did they get from point A to point B? Was it physically AND mentally healthy for them? Is it realistic and healthy for them to continue doing whatever helped them to lose weight for the rest of their lives in order to maintain it? Even if it was healthy for the person in the picture, is it healthy for others looking at the before & after pictures online?

I don’t believe that true wellness milestones are properly captured in weight loss transformation pictures. How do you capture increased peace and calm when choosing meals? Decreased guilt and shame surrounding foods? Increased confidence to make healthy balanced choices? Increased body love and appreciation for self care? Let's stop allowing physical appearance to dominate the wellness discussion, and instead shift the focus to true wellness.