Welcome to the waves, Slate's podcast about gender, feminism, and the tricky topic of

weight loss. Every episode you get a new host to talk about the thing

we cannot get off of our minds. And today you've got me, Shannon Paulus, a

senior editor at Slate. Recently I ran an essay by someone who was on Osmbeck, a hot

new drug that has been used for weight loss. This writer was prescribed the drug

because of her BMI and she describes the horrible fat phobia that made

her want to take it but she also now feels shame for taking a weight loss

drug in the essay the anonymous writer asks,

am I vain for wanting to lose weight through a doctor recommended method?

Is it my responsibility to be well adjusted enough to be unaffected by societal fat phobia and misogyny?

This is the double bind, maybe triple bind, so many of us find ourselves in.

To think through some of the sticky questions around it,

I wanted to talk to Tamar Hasbal.

She's been a journalist for over 20 years

and is the author of books including To Boldly Grow, Finding Joy, Adventure,

and Dinner in your own backyard.

She thinks about food and health from a lot of different angles.

She writes a column for the Washington Post about food

and nutrition. One of her recent columns was specifically on weight loss and how

there are tons and tons of different strategies from cutting carbs to

intermittent fasting. They all have fancy, science,

explanations, but they all obscure what to her mind is the most important factor in weight loss, which is eating fewer calories than you burn.

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