Heavier women who are hard on themselves end up with worse eating habits than women who forgive themselves after a setback, a Waterloo study shows
If you want to stick your healthy eating habits and feel good about your body, it’s better to have self-compassion when you slip up, according to a University of Waterloo study.
“Women may experience a more positive body image and better eating habits if they approach disappointments and distress with kindness, and the recognition that these struggles are a normal part of life,” says lead author Allison Kelly.
Researchers have found that the tendency to be accepting and understanding with yourself during disappointments and setbacks actually helps young women avoid some of the eating and body image pitfalls associated with being overweight.
The study, recently published in the journal Body Image, found that larger women with lower levels of self-compassion had a poorer body image and more disordered eating patterns, than similar-sized women who were kinder to themselves.
“Among women who possess high self-compassion, this relationship between BMI, unhealthy eating habits and poor self-image was essentially absent,” says Kelly, a professor in Waterloo’s Department of Psychology. “Being self-compassionate seems to protect young women from struggling with the unhealthy dieting practices and poorer body image that tend to go along with being overweight.”
The research team sought to discover if and how self-compassion can affect the unhealthy dieting and poor self-image that research has found to be more common among women who have higher BMIs. This study used BMI calculations based on each participant’s self-reported height and weight, and administered a series of questionnaires assessing levels of self-compassion, self-esteem, body image, and eating behaviours.
The results indicate that self-compassion might be an important means to increase positive body image and protect against unhealthy weight-control practices.
This study adds to the growing body of literature suggesting that self-compassion might offer unique benefits that self-esteem does not. “Self-compassion helps individuals accept and tolerate their perceived imperfections.” says Kelly. “Self-esteem, however, comes from evaluating oneself as above-average, and so may be limited in helping individuals cope with perceived shortcomings, such as being overweight in a culture that overvalues thinness.”
The research results suggest that eating disorder prevention and health promotion that focus on increasing young women’s self-compassion may be an important way to foster healthier weight management across the BMI spectrum.
