Alexis Conason, Psy.D.

Alexis Conason, Psy.D. Clinical psychologist, researcher, and founder of The Anti-Diet Plan. Radically changing the way we think about food, health, and our bodies. Post.

Alexis Conason, Psy.D. is a licensed psychologist in private practice in the Midtown East neighborhood of New York City. Her practice specializes in the treatment of overeating disorders, body image, sexual functioning, and psychological issues related to weight loss surgery. She is a Research Associate at The New York Obesity Nutrition Research Center (NYONRC) at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital in affiliation with Columbia University. She earned her doctorate degree in clinical psychology from Long Island University, C.W. Following completion of her doctorate, Dr. Conason completed post-doctoral training at The Karen Horney Clinic and the NYONRC. She also earned a certificate in Eating Disorders, Compulsions, and Addictions from the William Alanson White Institute and a certificate in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy from the American Institute for Psychoanalysis. Dr. Conason’s research has been published in peer-reviewed academic journals and she has presented at numerous scientific conferences. She is on the editorial board of Frontiers in Eating Behavior and has served as a peer reviewer for numerous scientific journals, including Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases and Obesity Surgery. She serves on the Board of the International Association of Eating Disorder Professionals-NY Chapter as their Research Chair and serves as the Advocacy and Outreach subcommittee chair of the Bariatric Surgery Section of The Obesity Society. She is an adjunct clinical supervisor at the Ferkauf School of Graduate Psychology. She is the author of the “Eating Mindfully” blog hosted by Psychology Today http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/eating-mindfully. She has been featured in the popular press including The Wall Street Journal/ Market Watch, Men's Health, Ladies' Home Journal, USA Today, The Huffington Post, Weight Watchers, Reuters, ABC News, Prevention, WebMD, EveryDay Health, US News & World Report Health Day, and Fox News.For more information, please visit www.drconason.com

“It’s okay to be fat… as long as I’m healthy.” Is that something you’ve heard or believed? ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀It’s so common for b...
03/13/2026

“It’s okay to be fat… as long as I’m healthy.”

Is that something you’ve heard or believed?
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It’s so common for body acceptance to feel conditional. Even in anti-diet spaces, fat acceptance can come with fine print.
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But what happens when you’re not healthy?
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Is your body suddenly not acceptable?
Is it less worthy?
Less deserving of care?
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What happens when your body needs more rest than you’d like?
What about if you need to take medication or use mobility aids, accommodations, or support?
What i it doesn’t perform in the ways our culture demands? Is your body no longer acceptable?
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If our acceptance of fatness is conditional on “health”, then is it truly acceptance or is it yet another demand?
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Body acceptance is about accepting (different from liking!), caring for, nurturing, and respecting your body wherever you happen to be at the moment.
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Health is not a moral achievement.
Ability is not a virtue.
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Your worth does not hinge on lab results, stamina, strength, or productivity.
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It hinges on your humanity.
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Full stop.

For years, we were sold the sensational headline that sugar is “as addictive as cocaine.”⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀That narrative didn’t ...
03/10/2026

For years, we were sold the sensational headline that sugar is “as addictive as cocaine.”
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That narrative didn’t just create fear around food.
It further pathologized fat bodies, painting fat people as out-of-control and powerless, while fueling mass hysteria around sugar.
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But the science was always more nuanced than the headlines.
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A recent brain imaging study adds to that nuance. Researchers found that ultra-processed foods did not behave like drugs of abuse in the brain. Dopamine responses were highly variable and, on average, small. They were not related to body size or adiposity.
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What was associated with a stronger reward response?
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Hunger.
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Which makes biological sense.
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When the body is underfed—whether from chronic dieting, sugar restriction, or deprivation — food becomes louder, more urgent, and more compelling.
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That’s not addiction. It’s survival.
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Our brains increase the reward value of food when we’re hungry so we eat and stay alive.
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When we restrict, we intensify the very experience we later label as “out of control.”
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Pleasure isn’t a diagnosis.
Enjoying sugar or “processed foods” isn’t a moral failure.
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And if you feel most “out of control” around food when you’ve been restricting?
That’s not proof you’re addicted.
It’s proof your biology is working.
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I know this can be a hot button topic! What do you think? Share 👇🏻

Pleasure is essential for our mental health.And yet so many of us were taught that pleasure is something to fear, to fig...
03/09/2026

Pleasure is essential for our mental health.
And yet so many of us were taught that pleasure is something to fear, to fight against, to only have in tiny increments ie “moderation,” or to feel ashamed of.
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But our brains are wired for it.
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Pleasure supports mood, motivation, connection, and stress relief. Food is a wonderful source of pleasure (along with so many others). There’s even research suggesting that when we’re relaxed and enjoying what we eat, our bodies digest and absorb nutrients more effectively.
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So eat something you genuinely enjoy today.
Notice the taste. The texture. The satisfaction.
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There’s no virtue in deprivation.
And there’s no shame in pleasure. 💜
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03/05/2026

GLP-1 medications are not designed to be short-term treatments.

A new systematic review published in The BMJ looked at what happens when people stop taking weight-loss medications, including GLP-1s and the findings reinforce what many experts have been saying from the start.

When the medications are stopped, most people regain weight, often at a rate of about one pound per month, and many return to their pre-medication weight within 1.5–2 years. Improvements in blood sugar, cholesterol, and blood pressure also tend to move back toward baseline.

Importantly, people who lost weight on medication regained weight faster than those who lost weight through behavioral interventions.

This is not a moral issue.
It’s not a discipline issue.
It’s physiology.

The study didn’t examine mental health outcomes, but we know from long-term bariatric surgery research that weight regain can be associated with distress and shame, even when it’s biologically expected.

If you’re considering a GLP-1 for weight loss, informed consent matters. These medications are generally intended for long-term, often lifelong, use.

We’re living in a moment where GLP-1s are marketed as miracle cures. The real story is more nuanced.

You deserve the full picture.

In a fatphobic world, it can be almost impossible to untangle weight loss from the alleviation of stigma and the social ...
03/03/2026

In a fatphobic world, it can be almost impossible to untangle weight loss from the alleviation of stigma and the social capital gained by being in a smaller body.

Sometimes when we say “I want to lose weight,” what we really mean is:
I want to feel desired.
I want to be treated with respect.
I want doctors to listen to me.
I want to move through the world without judgment.
I want increased access.
I want the promise of an easier life.

Of course you want those things. Who wouldn’t?

But those aren’t things you should have to shrink yourself to earn.

The problem isn’t your body.
It’s the system that withholds dignity and access based on size.

“EveryBODY belongs” sounds beautiful.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀But what does it really mean?⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀For everyBODY to belong, we need a w...
03/01/2026

“EveryBODY belongs” sounds beautiful.
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But what does it really mean?
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For everyBODY to belong, we need a world where every body is safe to exist.
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As long as bodies are shamed, surveilled, denied care, discriminated against, or subjected to violence, eating disorders will remain deeply political.
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As we close out Eating Disorder Awareness Week and this year’s theme “Every BODY belongs,” let’s remember that recovery is about more than food.
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This year’s Eating Disorder Awareness Week theme is EveryBODY Belongs.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀But historically, that has not been true....
02/28/2026

This year’s Eating Disorder Awareness Week theme is EveryBODY Belongs.
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But historically, that has not been true.
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Fat people are at increased risk for eating disorders.
Yet they are underdiagnosed.
Told they aren’t “sick enough.”
Praised when their disorder results in weight loss.
Told their struggles are less urgent than their thin peers.
Prescribed weight loss instead of offered treatment.
Denied a seat at the table in conversations about recovery.
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When we reinforce the narrative that eating disorders only happen in thin bodies, we uphold deadly stereotypes.
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Weight stigma exists in treatment spaces (just as it does everywhere else in our weight-centric culture).
It shapes who gets believed.
Who gets diagnosed.
Who gets insurance coverage.
Who gets access to care.
Who gets compassion.
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Fewer than 6% of people with eating disorders are medically underweight.
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That means the vast majority of people struggling do not “look” the way we’ve been taught to expect.
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If we’re serious about creating spaces where EveryBODY belongs, fat bodies cannot be an afterthought.
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They must be centered.
Period.
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LGBTQIA+ people are at higher risk of eating disorders than their straight, cisgender peers.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Transgender individ...
02/27/2026

LGBTQIA+ people are at higher risk of eating disorders than their straight, cisgender peers.
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Transgender individuals are diagnosed with eating disorders at 4x the rate of cisgender individuals.
LGBTQIA+ youth are 2–3 times more likely to experience an eating disorder than their straight peers.
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And yet, historically, LGBTQIA+ people haven’t been centered in the conversation.
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Higher risk hasn’t meant higher recognition.
Or better access to care.
Or safer treatment spaces.
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Bias shows up in recovery spaces, too.
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Misgendering.
Invalidation.
Assumptions.
Lack of representation.
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Programs built around cisgender, heterosexual norms.
Research that leaves LGBTQIA+ experiences underrepresented.
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When identity isn’t respected, treatment can feel unsafe and inaccessible.
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If we’re serious about creating spaces where everyBODY belongs, LGBTQIA+ voices cannot be a side note.
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They must be centered. 🌈
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We can’t talk about eating disorders without talking about race.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Eating disorders affect people of all racial an...
02/26/2026

We can’t talk about eating disorders without talking about race.
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Eating disorders affect people of all racial and ethnic backgrounds. And yet, Black individuals are more likely to be misdiagnosed, dismissed, or overlooked in healthcare and eating disorder treatment settings.
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When clinical models, screening tools, and research are built around white experiences, it leads to dangerous exclusion and lack of access.
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Black individuals are underrepresented in eating disorder research.
Evidence-based care often doesn’t reflect Black lived experience.
Culturally-informed treatment options remain limited.
And far too many treatment spaces lack Black providers.
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This isn’t about adding diversity as a footnote.
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It’s about telling the truth: eating disorders have never belonged to one demographic, even if the dominant narrative made it seem that way.
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If we’re serious about eating disorder awareness, Black voices must be centered. Period.

02/26/2026

If eating disorders don’t have a “look,” why do our systems still act like they do?

Research funding has historically centered thin, white, cisgender anorexia.

Media representation reinforces that image.

Treatment spaces are often built around it.

Leadership in major eating disorder organizations has long reflected it.

Meanwhile, higher-weight individuals, q***r and trans people, Black and Indigenous people and other people of color, and disabled folks have been:

Underrepresented in research.
Underdiagnosed in clinical settings.
Underserved in treatment.
Excluded from leadership and decision-making spaces.

That’s not random.

When certain bodies are consistently centered and others are consistently marginalized, that’s structural.

This year’s theme of Eating Disorder Awareness Week is “EveryBODY Belongs.”

If that’s going to mean something, it requires more than a slogan.

It requires changing who gets funded.
Who gets studied.
Who gets believed.
Who gets access to care.
And who gets to lead.

Awareness without change isn’t enough.

Every body belongs — not just the ones we’ve historically been comfortable centering.

02/25/2026

This Eating Disorder Awareness Week, let’s remember: eating disorders do not have a “look.”

Fewer than 6% of people with eating disorders are medically underweight.

People in larger bodies are at the highest lifetime risk.

Trans individuals are diagnosed at four times the rate of their cisgender peers.

LGBTQ+ youth are three times more likely to experience an eating disorder.

Black, Indigenous, and other people of color experience eating disorders at similar rates as white individuals — yet are about half as likely to be diagnosed.

And still, the stereotype persists.

Thin.
White.
Cisgender.
Young.
Female.

When we define eating disorders by appearance, we get it wrong.

We delay diagnoses.
We deny care.
We reinforce stigma.
And people suffer — sometimes fatally — because they don’t “look sick enough.”

Eating disorders are serious mental health conditions that affect people across all body sizes, races, genders, and identities.

If we want awareness to mean something, it has to include everyone.

I have more to say about why this keeps happening.

Part 2 goes up tomorrow and ’ll be talking about the systemic forces behind it.

As we start NEDA Week, let’s pause for a moment.Awareness matters.But how we create awareness matters too.Eating Disorde...
02/23/2026

As we start NEDA Week, let’s pause for a moment.

Awareness matters.
But how we create awareness matters too.

Eating Disorder Awareness Week should help more people feel seen — not reinforce stereotypes or unintentionally cause harm.

Before you hit post, consider:

• Are you only showing one “type” of body?
• Are you sharing numbers that invite comparison?
• Are you describing behaviors in ways that could become a how-to guide?
• Are before/after photos reinforcing the idea that someone has to look a certain way to be “sick enough” or “recovered enough”?

Eating disorders affect people across races, genders, body sizes, abilities, and socioeconomic backgrounds.

Representation matters.
Language matters.
Images matter.

You can tell the truth about how hard eating disorders are without sharing triggering details.
You can advocate for recovery without excluding or marginalizing.
You can raise awareness without reinforcing harm.

Let’s make this week about care.
More understanding.
More nuance.
More people feeling seen.

Let’s create a world that truly is for everyBODY. 💜

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Website

http://www.theantidietplan.com/

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