Simple Strength Leixlip

A personal perspective from a fitness professional still figuring it all out

I need to talk about these two studies that just came out in 2024. They hit hard, because they tell the story of my own journey with weight loss and diet culture – and maybe yours too.

Here’s me: Before I became a fitness professional, I was that teenager drinking SlimFast, convinced it was the answer. In my twenties, I sat in Weight Watchers meetings, hoping this would finally be “the solution.” Then there was the ‘South Beach diet’. And between those big diets? Years of disordered eating patterns that I’m still working to heal from. I even starts smoking in my teens in the hopwe that it would help me lose weight.

Let’s be real – even now, working in fitness, I’m still figuring this out. Every day I remind myself that my weight doesn’t define me. Some days that’s easier to believe than others.

That’s why these studies feel so important to share.

The first one, from the University of Bristol, followed people for nearly twenty years. What did they find? Those early pressures to lose weight – from family, from media, from everywhere really – they stick with us. They shape how we value ourselves decades later. And here’s the kicker – this happens regardless of what size you actually are.

The second study (Romo and colleagues, 2024) describes weight cycling as feeling like an addiction. People felt trapped in a cycle of losing weight, regaining it, feeling shame, then starting the next diet. Sound familiar? It sure does to me.

Being a fitness professional adds another layer to all this. There’s this pressure to look a certain way, to “be the example.” But you know what? I think the most important example I can set is being honest about my own journey. About still working on this stuff. About creating a space where we can move our bodies without all the weight loss pressure.

Because here’s what really gets me: when I look at these studies, I see how the weight loss industry has been playing us. We’re not failing at diets – diets are failing us. And they’ve been doing it since we were kids.

That’s why I’ve made some firm decisions about how I run my business:

• No weight loss promises
• No before and after photos
• No scales or measurements
• No transformation challenges
• No food tracking or diet plans

Instead, I offer a space where you can move your body without shame. Where fitness is about feeling strong, capable, and connected to your body – not about shrinking it.

Is this approach perfect? No. Am I still learning and growing? Absolutely. Some days I still struggle with my own internalized fitness industry standards. But that’s exactly why this matters so much to me.

These new studies confirm what many of us have felt: the way we talk about weight and bodies can cause long-lasting harm. As fitness professionals, we have a choice: we can either keep perpetuating that cycle, or we can work to create something different.

I’m choosing different. Not because I’ve got it all figured out, but because I know how it feels to be on the other side. To be the teenager with the meal replacement shakes. To be the young woman at Weight Watchers. To be the fitness professional still healing their relationship with their body.

If you’re reading this and recognizing your own story in these studies, know that you’re not alone. There are spaces and communities out there that support movement without the weight loss pressure. Your worth isn’t measured in pounds lost, and neither is your fitness journey.

This is why I do what I do. And why I’ll keep showing up, imperfectly but authentically, to create the kind of fitness space I wish I’d had all those years ago.

Sources:
“A Qualitative Model of Weight Cycling” by Romo et al., published in Qualitative Health Research (2024)

“Family and media pressure to lose weight in adolescence linked to how people value themselves almost two decades later” – University of Bristol, published in The Lancet Regional Health Europe (2024)