Maybe Bodies Aren't Meant to Do This?

The myth of the "final draft" body.

I’ve been thinking lately about all the things we ask our bodies to do that they were never meant to do.

Shrink endlessly.
Stay the same size forever.
Never fluctuate, never soften, never lose abilities, never age.

We treat the human body like a stubborn appliance with a malfunctioning weight setting — as if stability in size is a virtue, and fluctuation is a failure.

But maybe bodies aren’t meant to do this.
Maybe the idea that bodies are supposed to be thin and remain fixed in some time warp is the problem, not the body itself.

After all, we don’t expect this from trees, from flowers, from anything else nature offers. And yet, we forget that we are nature too — meant to bend, to bloom, to change, to grow, to break and begin again.

Having a body in this world is hard, especially right now. But you are here to do so much more than shrink yourself. So today, I want to offer you a few reminders — gentle truths that I hope will be something you can save and return to, whenever you need to read them again:

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• A smaller body does not mean a healthier body.
  Despite what decades of medical bias and weight-loss marketing have told us, thinness is not a reliable proxy for health. You cannot see health on a person.

  #116: "But Isn't Being Fat Bad for Your Health?": Unpacking Weight Science with Ragen Chastain

  We’ve been sold a story—one where a smaller body is automatically seen as more disciplined, more worthy, more well. But this narrative isn’t just misleading—it’s dangerous. The Health at Every Size framework (and over a century of research) reminds us: health cannot be reduced to our size, and when it is, that stigma itself is what truly harms our well-being.

• Thinness is not a moral virtue or a victory.
  You are not a better person because your body fits into a smaller pair of jeans.
  Thinness is not a prize, and fatness is not a failure. Bodies are not moral hierarchies. They are homes. And every body — no matter its shape or size — is equally worthy of care, dignity, and respect.

• Gaining weight does not mean you’re doing something wrong.
  It might mean you're healing.
  It might mean you’re finally feeding yourself with the care you always deserved.
  It might mean you’re coming home to your body after years of fighting it.
  It might mean nothing more than that you're a human being in motion — existing through change, seasons, and the natural shifts that come with being alive.

• Weight fluctuations are normal and expected. Bodies aren’t robots.
  Hormones shift. Stress ebbs and flows. Grief happens. Joy happens. Puberty. Menopause. Illness. Rest. Recovery. Life.
  Bodies respond. That's what they're supposed to do, and there doesn’t ever need to be a reason or a justification for that.

• Body diversity is real, beautiful, and intentional.
  We don't ask chihuahuas to become golden retrievers. We celebrate their differences without question — no one tells a bulldog to lengthen its legs or a greyhound to be fluffier.
  You were never meant to be a before-and-after. You are not supposed to look like someone else. You are supposed to look like you.

• Bodies are meant to change.
  There is no version of your body that is the “final draft.” Change is not failure—it's physiology. For as long as you’re living, your body will be changing.

• There is, under no circumstance, a wrong way to have a body.
  Not in softness. Not in fatness. Not in color. Not in gender. Not in disability or chronic illness. Not in texture or stretch marks or wrinkles or scars.
  There is no "wrong." There is only human.

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So if your body is changing…
Whether that’s in size or ability or feelings…
If it seems different from how it used to be —

Maybe your body isn’t betraying you.
Maybe it’s just doing what bodies were always meant to do.

This isn’t about ignoring our experience. It’s not about pretending that health concerns never happen or that symptoms should be brushed aside. Listening to your body is powerful. Seeking support when something feels off is wise.

But let’s not allow our culture to confuse awareness with alarmism — or to make us pathologize every fluctuation in shape or size. This is about making room for the vast, wild spectrum of “normal” that diet culture taught us to fear. Because bodies change. They are supposed to change. And there is no single version of “healthy” or “right” that everyone must fit into.

Let’s normalize that there is no normal.
Let’s remember that difference isn’t danger.
And let’s trust that our body is not a never-ending project.

You deserve respect — not constant repair.

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This seems like a good post for a community thread.

• What comes up for you when your body changes?

• Have you thought about what the fear is about?

• And what has helped you move through that fear with more kindness?