It’s time to stop pretending that “acceptance” was the philosophical bedrock of the Health at Every Size/body positivity movement.

The success of GLP-1 drugs has produced irrefutable evidence that when an “easy enough” exit exists, people take it.

Economists refer to this as “revealed preference.”

Ignore what people say in surveys or on Instagram Stories. Watch what they do when the cost of an action collapses.

If body positivity was a deeply held belief—if fatness was truly a neutral or positive state—a new drug wouldn’t drastically change behavior. People would just stay fat and proud.

But they aren’t. Given a real choice, millions are choosing thinness.

It turns out that “making peace” with our body is just what we do when we think we’re stuck with it.

That includes many celebrities, influencers, and “curvy and proud” brand ambassadors who made entire careers out of telling you that wanting to be thinner was internalized oppression.

Suddenly, they’ve gotten very quiet, very full, very thin—and very “private about their health journey.” I guess “health at every size” just meant “I will accept this size until Wegovy.”

Why the sudden switch? Because their biology changed.

GLP-1s don’t produce weight loss by “regulating” or “repairing” a dysfunctional endocrine system or metabolism.

They simply create a supraphysiological suppression of appetite by mimicking the effects of a natural hormone but at concentrations 20 to 50 times higher than the body’s own endogenous levels.

Put differently, these drugs produce a “stop eating” signal louder than anything your body could ever produce on its own no matter how “regulated” your hormones were.

They are effectively satiety steroids—chemical willpower.

None of this is to say that body positivity was fake, however. It’s just proof that humans can hold two thoughts in their head at once:

  1. They genuinely hated the way society treated them for being fat.
  2. They also genuinely wished they were thinner.

As a thousand OF thirst traps have assured us, “humans contain multitudes.” And (delete your) Instagram and TikTok contain marketing.

To be clear: this isn’t a blanket recommendation—these drugs have real risks and unknowns. Furthermore, none of this makes genetics, age, hormones, and other such factors “excuses” per se—they often make appetite harder to manage.

The point is narrower:

Body positivity helped millions live with dignity in bodies they believed they couldn’t change. But for a massive number of them, “acceptance” was the consolation prize—not the goal.

Now that the first-place trophy is readily available, nobody wants the participation ribbon anymore.

Scientific References +