What Does Health at Every Size Focus On?

January 10, 2026 •

4 min read

The Health at Every Size (HAES) approach shifts the conventional focus of health away from weight and dieting, emphasizing wellbeing and body diversity instead. This model, which challenges the assumption that weight is the sole indicator of health, has been gaining recognition as a more compassionate and sustainable path to wellness.

Quick Summary

The Health at Every Size philosophy emphasizes wellbeing, body inclusivity, and respectful care over weight loss goals. It uses intuitive eating and joyful movement to promote a healthier relationship with food and body, reducing harm from weight stigma and diet culture.

Key Points

Rejecting Weight as the Sole Health Metric: HAES shifts the focus from weight and BMI to health-promoting behaviors, acknowledging that health is not determined by size alone.
Embracing Body Diversity: A core principle is to respect and accept the natural variation in body shapes and sizes, moving away from a singular, idealized body type.
Promoting Intuitive Eating: HAES encourages listening to internal hunger and fullness cues instead of following restrictive diets, fostering a peaceful relationship with food.
Encouraging Joyful Movement: The approach advocates for physical activity that is enjoyable and energizing, rather than using exercise as a tool for weight loss.
Combating Weight Stigma and Bias: HAES actively works to end weight-based discrimination in healthcare and society, recognizing its detrimental impact on mental and physical health.
Prioritizing Holistic Well-being: The framework considers health in a multi-dimensional way, including physical, emotional, social, and spiritual aspects, for a more complete picture of wellness.
Advocating for Equitable Healthcare: HAES aims to ensure that everyone, regardless of size, receives compassionate and effective medical care without judgment or bias.

What is the Health at Every Size (HAES) Framework?

Health at Every Size, often known by its acronym HAES, is a weight-inclusive public health framework that centers on the idea that health can be pursued and achieved regardless of a person’s body size. Developed by the Association for Size Diversity and Health (ASDAH), this approach refutes the conventional weight-centric model, which often leads to weight stigma and biased care. HAES promotes a paradigm shift toward body respect and holistic wellbeing, acknowledging that a person's health is influenced by a complex interplay of factors including genetics, environment, social status, and mental health—not just their weight. Instead of prescribing weight loss, HAES-aligned practices encourage sustainable and meaningful health-promoting behaviors that improve overall quality of life.

The Five Core Principles of HAES

The HAES approach is guided by five foundational principles that promote wellbeing beyond the number on a scale:

Weight Inclusivity: This principle advocates for respecting the natural diversity of body shapes and sizes. It rejects the idealization of thinness and the pathologizing of specific weights, challenging weight bias in the healthcare system and broader society.
Health Enhancement: Health is viewed holistically, encompassing physical, social, emotional, spiritual, and economic well-being. HAES supports accessible health policies and personal practices that improve quality of life, rather than focusing solely on a single metric like weight.
Eating for Well-being: This principle encourages flexible and individualized eating based on internal cues of hunger, satiety, and pleasure. It involves rejecting the restrictive mindset of diet culture and fostering a peaceful, sustainable relationship with food.
Respectful Care: HAES advocates for an end to weight discrimination and bias in healthcare settings. It calls on practitioners to acknowledge their own biases and to provide compassionate, respectful care for people of all sizes, ensuring that larger-bodied individuals are not dismissed or shamed.
Life-Enhancing Movement: The focus is on finding physical activities that are enjoyable and sustainable, rather than punishing workouts aimed at weight loss. Movement is celebrated for its ability to improve energy, mood, and overall health, independent of any impact on body size.

HAES vs. Traditional Weight-Focused Approaches

To understand the full scope of HAES, it helps to compare it directly with the conventional, weight-centric models that dominate much of healthcare and public discourse.


Feature	Traditional Weight-Focused Approach	Health at Every Size (HAES) Approach
Primary Goal	Intentional weight loss is the main objective and measure of success.	Holistic health enhancement, focusing on behaviors over weight outcomes.
Body View	Equates thinness with health and beauty; views weight gain negatively.	Respects and accepts the diversity of all body shapes and sizes.
Approach to Eating	Often relies on restrictive diets, calorie counting, and external rules.	Promotes intuitive eating, honoring internal hunger and fullness cues.
Movement/Exercise	Viewed as a tool for burning calories and losing weight; can be punishing.	Encourages joyful, sustainable, and life-enhancing movement for well-being.
Healthcare Focus	Frequently attributes health concerns solely to weight, potentially delaying proper care.	Addresses health issues independently of weight, assessing other biomarkers like blood pressure and cholesterol.
Evidence	Studies show poor long-term success rates for restrictive dieting, with weight regain common.	Growing body of evidence shows improvements in psychological well-being, eating behaviors, and other health markers.

The Negative Impact of Weight Stigma

A significant focus of the HAES movement is combating the pervasive problem of weight stigma. Research shows that weight stigma and discrimination have severe negative consequences for both mental and physical health. Experiences of judgment, shaming, and mistreatment from peers, family, and medical professionals can lead to anxiety, depression, lower self-esteem, and increased eating disorder risk. This fear of judgment can also cause individuals in larger bodies to avoid seeking necessary medical care, leading to delayed diagnoses and poorer health outcomes. By promoting respectful care and body inclusivity, HAES seeks to mitigate these harms and create a more equitable healthcare experience for all.

Promoting Joyful and Sustainable Movement

HAES-aligned practitioners prioritize a different relationship with physical activity. Instead of focusing on exercise as a means of punishment or purely for weight loss, the emphasis is on finding movement that feels good and brings joy. This reframing can help individuals move past negative associations with exercise and build a sustainable habit based on internal motivation, rather than external pressure. Activities like dancing, hiking, yoga, or simply walking can be promoted, focusing on their benefits for mood, energy, and overall health.

Moving Toward a More Holistic View of Health

Ultimately, HAES advocates for a broader, more compassionate understanding of what it means to be healthy. It challenges us to look beyond a simplistic and often biased focus on weight and to consider the complex web of factors that truly impact a person's well-being. By promoting body diversity, intuitive eating, and respectful care, the HAES framework offers a powerful tool for building a healthier society for everyone, regardless of their size. This shift in focus empowers individuals to prioritize sustainable, long-term behaviors that enhance their lives, rather than pursuing often-unsuccessful and psychologically damaging weight loss attempts. For further information, the Association for Size Diversity and Health (ASDAH) offers valuable resources and outlines the core principles in detail.

Conclusion: A Paradigm Shift for Compassionate Care

The Health at Every Size framework represents a profound shift away from a weight-centric understanding of health toward a model rooted in respect, inclusivity, and holistic well-being. By emphasizing the five core principles of weight inclusivity, health enhancement, mindful eating, respectful care, and joyful movement, HAES offers a more humane and effective path forward. It empowers individuals to develop a healthier relationship with their bodies and food, free from the shame and stigma of diet culture. While the journey to systemic change is ongoing, understanding what Health at Every Size focuses on is a critical first step towards creating a more equitable and compassionate world for people of all shapes and sizes.

Frequently Asked Questions

No, HAES does not assume everyone is healthy, but rather that everyone is capable of pursuing health-promoting behaviors, regardless of their body size. It separates health from weight, emphasizing that health is not a moral obligation or entirely within one's control.

HAES is anti-weight prescription, not anti-weight loss. It opposes intentional, diet-driven weight loss as the primary goal of health interventions. If a person's weight changes as a natural byproduct of adopting healthier behaviors, it is not an issue.

Yes, HAES is often used in eating disorder recovery because it helps to dismantle the harmful diet mentality and focus on more holistic measures of well-being. It encourages self-compassion and body acceptance, which are critical for lasting recovery.

HAES-aligned providers assess a patient's health by looking at other key biomarkers and behaviors. This can include blood pressure, cholesterol levels, bloodwork, eating behaviors, physical activity levels, and overall mental and emotional well-being.

HAES reframes health risks, addressing chronic conditions by focusing on health-promoting behaviors like improved nutrition and physical activity, rather than prescribing weight loss as the sole solution. A HAES-aligned practitioner would treat a larger-bodied person with a condition like hypertension the same way they would a thin person.

Numerous studies support the effectiveness of HAES interventions, showing improvements in psychological well-being, eating behaviors, body image, and various health markers, often with sustained changes over time. It has also been shown to reduce weight stigma and disordered eating.

HAES is a broader social justice framework and public health approach, while intuitive eating is a practice focused specifically on listening to internal body cues for hunger and fullness. Intuitive eating is one of the five core principles of the HAES philosophy.