It’s time for employers to join the scientific and medical communities in recognizing an irrefutable fact. Losing weight is impossible — significant weight, anyway, and for the long term.
Sure, you may know one or two people who managed to shed a few pounds and keep them off. But the current scientific consensus says that when most of us try to lose weight, we fail. Moreover, there’s nothing wrong with that.
According to experts, weight loss is neither a realistic nor a particularly beneficial health goal. The fruitless struggle for weight loss often causes more mental and physical anguish than it alleviates.
So, why are so many corporate wellness programs still so focused on motivating employees to lose weight?
You can help your employees achieve genuine, long-lasting well-being by shifting your company wellness program’s focus from weight loss to whole health. Read on to learn why and how.
Related: Download our Employee Wellness Toolkit Get it here →
The Science of Weight Loss and Why It’s Nearly Impossible
If you or someone close to you has ever tried to lose weight, you already know how difficult it can be. We can diet and work out intensely, and yet, our target weight seems to remain forever out of reach. If we do manage to lose a few pounds, they inevitably return within a short period.
The problem, as scientists now understand it, is more than a lack of discipline or willpower. Several biological factors conspire against us when we try to lose weight:
- Metabolism may slow, making it harder to burn calories.
- Our hormones send us signals to eat more.
Many people are genetically predisposed toward being overweight. Genes can control our appetite, metabolism, sense of fullness, food cravings, fat distribution, and other bodily signals and systems related to consuming, processing, and storing food energy.
Social, cultural, and economic factors can also profoundly impact a person’s weight. For example, living in a neighborhood where fresh ingredients are less available can make preparing healthy meals at home a challenge.
Weight and the Workplace
As awareness spreads of the many ways sociological, biological, and economic factors shape our bodies, the pervasive stigma against obesity and being overweight has lessened — somewhat. But we have a long way to go.
For many people, being thin equates to being healthy. And this mindset can be poisonous in the workplace.
A 2025 Axios article summarizes how discrimination based on body size continues to impact American workers:
- Negative workplace attitudes about body size have held steady for well over a decade, even as attitudes about race and gender have shifted.
- Half of managers say they prefer interacting with employees who are not overweight.
- Just a 10% increase in a woman’s body mass can lead to a 6% cut in salary.
When workplace wellness programs focus on weight loss and body mass index (a measurement most experts say has little to do with health), they reinforce destructive stereotypes.
“Weight-centered workplace wellness programs seem to be constructed around the idea that weight loss isn’t just possible; it’s a worker’s responsibility to their colleagues and employer. That’s likely to increase antifat bias and bigotry in the workplace — which, in turn, makes the simple act of going to work a stigmatizing one for many fat people.”
In addition, workplace wellness initiatives are about as statistically ineffective as individual weight loss efforts. According to a RAND study sponsored by the U.S. Departments of Labor and Health and Human Services, people participating in a workplace weight control program lose an average of just one pound after the first year and just one-quarter of a pound by the fourth year.
By making people feel self-conscious about their weight, workplace weight loss programs may negatively impact work performance, say the authors of a recent study on subjective feelings of being overweight in the workplace.
“How fat someone feels is a better predictor of job performance than how overweight someone is,” the researchers report. Wellness programs that “enable employees to develop a psychologically healthy outlook could improve health and work outcomes, creating better-performing employees.”
Designing an Employee Wellness Program to Focus on Whole Health
Workplace wellness programs built around weight loss goals may stigmatize and stress employees without leading to positive health outcomes. To refocus your employee wellness program, you can take a cue from the Health at Every Size movement, which encourages healthy habits as goals in and of themselves.
For example, instead of a healthy eating program that has employees tracking calories, you could offer videos and seminars teaching employees how to choose and prepare meals with healthy whole food ingredients, which are associated with lower blood pressure and decreased risk of disease.
Similarly, your exercise program can focus on attainable metrics, like active minutes. According to medical experts, just 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week (less than a half-hour per day) can help people live longer and avoid cardiovascular disease.
The science is also clear about the critical role mental health plays in overall well-being. Mental health issues are associated with an increased risk of chronic disease, poor diet, lack of exercise, and sleep disturbances — all of which are linked to conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and cancer.
Your company’s wellness program can help employees improve their mental health in a number of ways, including:
- Offering free mental health screening tools
- Providing access to video counseling
- Hosting mindfulness educators
- Offering subscriptions for mindfulness apps
- Addressing financial wellness, a key component of mental health and overall well-being.
Workplace Wellness That Works
As we’ve discussed in this article, weight loss is an outdated and potentially harmful wellness goal. Effective employee wellness programs focus on whole health goals, such as being active, eating wholesome meals, and tackling mental health issues.
Whether building an employee wellness program from scratch or aligning it with a modern conception of well-being, find inspiration with these 23 must-have ideas for your employee wellness program.