Sara, a nutritionist specializing in eating disorders and hormonal imbalances: “Taking care of yourself is not the same as losing weight”

Many people believe that looking after their health means losing weight, but that is a mistaken belief that is, unfortunately, deeply entrenched. At least that is the view of Sara Valderrama, a nutritionist specializing in eating disorders and hormonal imbalances. In one of her most recent social media videos, she reflects on this issue and takes aim at one of the central pillars of so-called diet culture.

Valderrama starts with a blunt statement: “Taking care of yourself is not the same as losing weight.” From there, she explains how diet culture has led many people – including some health professionals – to closely link good health with weight loss. But she warns that losing weight can be just a side effect of self-care, and that it does not always happen nor should it be the main goal. “That idea of saying, ‘I’m taking care of myself – I’m not eating carbohydrates!’ is completely outdated,” she says. “In reality, what’s going on in your head is an obsession with carbs being bad, you talk to yourself horribly all day, and in the end you don’t even have enough energy to go and work out, for example.”

Good health goes far beyond losing weight

Valderrama argues that self-care should be understood from a much broader perspective, which she breaks down into three main areas. The first is mental: how a person speaks to themselves, the kinds of thoughts that dominate their mind, and how they relate to others through that internal dialogue. Taking care of yourself also means noticing whether you are constantly criticizing yourself or whether you treat yourself with more kindness.

The second area is emotional. Here, the nutritionist encourages people to pay attention to how they feel and to identify emotions such as sadness, anger, or well-being. Recognizing what is happening on an emotional level, she explains, is a real and necessary form of self-care – especially in a social context that pushes people to ignore discomfort in favor of achieving a specific physical appearance.

The third aspect is behavioral, or, in other words, what we do in our day-to-day lives. This includes eating, movement, rest, and everyday habits. Valderrama warns that practices that have become widely normalized – such as cutting out entire food groups, prolonged fasting, or living under rigid rules around food – are not always synonymous with good health. They can go hand in hand with obsession, guilt, sadness, and a lack of energy.

In this way, Sara Valderrama’s reflections have once again reopened the long-running debate about health and its close association with weight loss, while also reframing self-care as a balance between mental, emotional, and physical well-being, adapted to each individual and each stage of life. Do you agree with her view?

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