We live in a society where if you’re slim, you’re considered healthy, and if you’re not, you’re unhealthy. The truth is that we shouldn’t rely on weight as an indication of health.

Losing weight isn’t easy. Weight loss diets often require so much restriction of calories, carbs or fat that it’s natural to start feeling deprived. Even when you have lost weight, there’s a good amount of research showing that you’re likely to gain it back over the next few years.

Many experts now believe that focusing on weight loss as the ultimate goal isn’t helpful, and that promoting healthy behaviours is more achievable and may have better outcomes.

With this approach, “if a person loses weight through changing their health behaviours, weight loss is a beneficial side effect, not the primary goal,” says accredited practising dietitian Zoe Nicholson in the RACGP’s newsGP.

Don’t focus on weight

There are a number of problems with making weight loss your only goal, believes Nicholson. While you can actively take steps to improve eating and exercise habits, you may not lose the desired amount of weight. And without the visible change on the scales, you may not be motivated to continue.

Reduced body weight tends to get the credit for improved health, but this is often also the result of changes such as eating better and exercising more.

Healthy behaviour and longer life

There are a number of studies that link a higher Body Mass Index (BMI) with a shorter lifespan. Fewer have investigated healthy behaviours and longevity, independent of body weight. One largescale study of over 11,000 people, published in the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, examined the impact of four behaviours on death rates: eating more fruits and vegetables; exercising regularly; moderate alcohol intake; and not smoking. The researchers then crunched the numbers according to people’s body weight.

The results? Size mattered, to a point. Being thinner was protective – but only if you didn’t have a healthy lifestyle. Having a BMI over 30 increased your risk of dying early – but only if you weren’t following the four healthy behaviours.

What the study did show was that the association between body weight and dying early dropped away almost completely once behaviours were taken into account.

What can we take away from research such as this? Changing your eating patterns and increasing your activity may or may not lead to the desired drop in kilos. But no matter the shift on the scales, your health is going to benefit.