Is God Happy When I Lose Weight? [Podcast Transcript]

Title: Is God Happy When I Lose Weight?

Podcast Date: July 1, 2025

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Description

Has the weigh-in woman at Weight Watchers shaped your concept of God? Today's episode was inspired when Heather heard a story of a woman whose body image issues and eating disorders could be traced back to the ever-present mental image of the weigh- in person at Weight Watchers. That woman either smiled or frowned, depending on what kind of week the person stepping on the scale had. But, have we twisted this kind of definition of success or failure, sin or holiness on to our infinite God? Is God pleased when we lose weight? Or, is that a concept that doesn't really connect with what we know of our all glorious heavenly father?

This episode will make you think and may challenge you to re-evaluate who you believe God is and what you believe about him.

Mentioned in today's show: https://omny.fm/shows/compared-to-who/live-podcast-q-a-using-the-lords-name-to-sell-weig

https://omny.fm/shows/compared-to-who/have-we-christianized-disordered-eating-featuring

Amy Carlson on Self Control (Part 1): https://omny.fm/shows/compared-to-who/is-self-control-really-the-solution-to-our-food-is

Self Control (Part 2): https://omny.fm/shows/compared-to-who/do-i-need-more-self-control-to-stop-eating-feat-am

Learn more about Compared to Who? by visiting: Https://www.improvebodyimage.com

The 40-Day Body Image Workbook: https://www.improvebodyimage.com/40-Day-Body-Image-Workbook-Christian

The 40 Day Journey (begins in September): https://www.improvebodyimage.com/40-day-challenge

Transcript

Disclaimer: This transcript is AI-generated and has not been edited for accuracy or clarity.

[00:00:02]:

Life Audio. Hey friends, Heather Creekmar here. Thanks for listening to the Compare to podcast. Today's episode was kind of a whim because I was listening to a podcast while I was on my walk. And in the podcast, it wasn't a Christian podcast, but the guest on the show was describing how some of her earliest memories around food and body image involved a woman at Weight Watchers standing behind a scale and either frowning at someone if they gained weight or smiling at someone if they lost weight. And she didn't make this connection at all. But as I was thinking about it, I was like, whoa, this is a God concept. How many of us learned something kind of twisted, honestly.

[00:00:56]:

How many of us grew up learning that God was like the woman who did the weigh ins at Weight Watchers? That God would smile at us if the scale number went down or frowned at us if the number went up? How many of us have completely. I'm just gonna say it, like whacked out, strange, not actually biblical truth, definitions, understandings of God because of, I mean, call it trauma, because of trauma related to going to Weight Watchers with mom or grandma or Aunt Sue. Friends, we gotta know who God is and how he delights in us and what gives him pleasure. Because, friend, if you are trying to lose weight to please God, I just don't think you're going to find a Bible verse to support that, my friend. So I'm glad you're here for it today. Oh goodness. If this is an area you are stuck in your life, I hope you'll join us on the 40 day journey. We do it every quarter and this summer is a great opportunity for you to be a part of it.

[00:02:08]:

Now let's get to today's show. So quite literally, friend, like, I got back from this walk within the last 10 minutes and I was just so fired up, I was like, I've got to record an episode on this. I don't even know what I'm gonna schedule it because it wasn't on my plan. But I feel pretty passionate about it now because I realized listening to this woman's story and she wasn't a believer, but listening to this woman's story, it was so, so clear to me that she was raised under this umbrella of the higher power, is pleased with me when I lose weight and displeased with me when I gain weight. And that pressure connected to like a future of eating disorders and really all kinds of body dysmorphic disorder and all kinds of body image issues for this woman. And I was like, oh goodness, like, this has happened for so many of you, hasn't it? And maybe it wasn't actually Weight Watchers. I mean, Weight Watchers, maybe that, you know, pertains to a certain generation. Maybe it was just mom that put you on the scale or Grandma put you on the scale every time you went to visit.

[00:03:27]:

But somewhere deep, deep down in a place maybe you've never gone before, there is this core belief that you are actually pleasing God when you can meet your weight loss goal. And you are maybe displeasing God if your body doesn't shrink. And I want to dispel that today. I want us to just, like, look at scripture and think about what is biblically true, because culture has messed with our heads. Culture has, like, redefined biblical truths to. To mean something that they don't. And so let's just start with the basics, right? God is not an idolater. God does not find pleasure in you losing weight, okay? What makes God happiest is himself.

[00:04:21]:

He has no greater joy than himself. He is a supreme being. And that's way too much for our little brains to even try to comprehend. But he has the infinitely highest, like, glory and value and beauty and blessedness and happiness, right? And it extends far before we were born. It sends back to the creation of the world. He's fully satisfied in himself. So God is not that parent that feels like they'll be happier once you lose a couple more pounds. That's not the kind of parent God is.

[00:05:00]:

That's not the kind of father God is. God's already satisfied. God is enough and has enough and isn't waiting for you to chip in. He's not waiting for you to do something. And so, you know, God, we believe in the Trinity, right? It's God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit. And so God delights in Jesus. We see that in Matthew 3:17, right, when Jesus is being baptized and God says from heaven, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Like God is pleased in Jesus.

[00:05:34]:

God is pleased in what Jesus did. He's pleased in the gospel. He's delighted in this reality that Jesus gave himself up. He gave up his pleasure. He gave up his glory while he became human for you and I so that we could be reconnected with God, right? These are the things that give a God of infinite value and infinite glory. These are the things that evoke his pleasure. And so to say that God is pleased when I lose weight, like, oh, it diminishes it so much. That's not what God's all about it shrinks God.

[00:06:21]:

It really makes him too small. I did an interview with Amy Carlson. It was several months ago, maybe even a year, where we talked about the phenomenon of all these, like, weight loss programs, diet programs, even exercise programs that are Christian programs that try to use Bible verses like. Like as a justification for weight loss. So one popular one, right, is using the original sin, the story of the fall in the garden, as a story to tell you why it's bad to be tempted by food, right? Which is not what that's about at all, right? I mean, to diminish, like, what Eve did and what Adam did in disobeying God when God gave them access to all the other trees in the garden, it was really disobedience. It was really pride. It was really. They decided, based on the serpent's temptation, that maybe they knew better than God or, oh, maybe God was holding out on them and that they needed something he hadn't provided, right? They tried to become their own gods.

[00:07:29]:

They questioned whether or not God was good. And that led to the original sin, which was the fall of man. Friend, if anyone's ever trying to sell you a diet by saying, even Eve was tempted by food, oh, that's just gross. That's yucky. That's not what the Bible is. And so I want to remind you today, and Amy does such a good job, I'm going to link that episode in the show notes. But she did such a good job of explaining this as taking God's name in vain, right? We think of taking God's name in vain as like saying, like, God is a swear word, right? But to take God's name in vain is really to invoke the name of God or the power of God or the authority of God onto something that a man has created, something we created. And we're like, okay, we're going to put like, a bumper sticker on it that says God approved.

[00:08:24]:

That's really what it means to take God's name in vain. And so to use scripture to take scripture and diminish it to the level of, you know, diet rules that come from our culture that are constantly changing, let's just be honest, because whatever rule you're sticking by today, whether it's donate after 7pm or donate carbs, right, it's going to change in 10 years. There's going to be completely different rules. So these are not gospel, like, un unchangeable truths that we are stamping God's seal of approval on. And that's just dangerous stuff. I think that's taking God's name in vain. I totally agree with Amy. But then let's take this back to our weight watchers weigh in example.

[00:09:06]:

To believe in that kind of God, to believe that that's. That's who God is. That God's standing in heaven with a scale and when you die, he's going to make you hop on and he's either going to say, good job, or you should have done better on earth. Like, friend, that's just twisted. That's not what we get crowns for in heaven. That's not what God is judging us for. You have one life and God's going to ask you what you did with it, not how much you weighed during it. And so as I was thinking about this, like, literally in the last 10 minutes, I was thinking about, like, how do we please God? What are some things we see in scripture that teach us, like, this is how you please God.

[00:09:54]:

And so again, like, God's not sitting around waiting for us to please him because he is satisfied in and of himself. He's not the parent that needs you to perform so they can feel better about themselves. Like, oh, I did a good job raising her. No, that's not God. But there are things in scripture that say that God takes pleasure in them. So he takes pleasure, like we said in Jesus and what Jesus did for us in the redeeming, saving work of Jesus. But we also know, oh, goodness, think about the story of the prodigal son. God takes so much pleasure in a repentant heart.

[00:10:32]:

When we say, oh, I've tried to do it my own way. I have messed up. I have done all the things. I'm running back to you. I love that song by sending Seph. Oh, I say words wrong, but it's running back to you. Oh, it's such a good song. Go listen to it.

[00:10:48]:

But it's that Scott takes pleasure in that, in repenting and running back to him. He also takes pleasure in his people, like he does delight in us. I love the blessing from. I believe it's the book of Numbers. Lord bless you and keep you. Lord, make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. Lord, lift up his countenance upon you and grant you peace. Right two times in that the Lord make his face shine upon you and lift up his countenance upon you.

[00:11:18]:

Both of those cases, it's God smiling at you. He's smiling at you. If you are one of his. He's smiling at you. If you have believed the gospel, if you have come to him in repentance. If you've turned from your sin, if you're trying to follow him and he's smiling, he's pleased, his face is shining upon you. And that doesn't have anything to do with your weight loss, goalfriend. God is also pleased when people walk in his ways, right? And when I say walk in his ways, I'm talking about holiness.

[00:11:54]:

We're gonna take a quick break and I'll be right back with what those ways are. So Romans 8:8 I think is an effective place to find, I don't know, like an umbrella for all of this. And Romans 8:8 says, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Right? So that takes us right back to God being pleased when we are repentant. He's pleased when we believe that Jesus is the only way we can be reconnected to him. Right? But being in the flesh is a place where we cannot place God. Now, I want to tread carefully here, but I know from my own experience, weight loss goals. Pursuing weight loss for me was a fleshly endeavor.

[00:12:41]:

Now, I know, I know you've probably been taught that a fleshly endeavor is eating or a fleshly endeavor is eating foods that are quote, unquote, bad. Eating high calorie foods is the flesh. But friend, that minimizes what the flesh is. That makes really, like, sin, evil versus holiness. That takes it down to, like, diet rules. And that's not what righteousness is about. God's righteousness, God's holiness is about sin. And friend, it is not a sin to eat cake or an Oreo.

[00:13:25]:

Now, can you make cakes and Oreos? Your life, can you turn those into idols? Can you make life revolve around food? Can you take it to a sinful, problematic place? Of course you can. But most of us are far more worried about how many Oreos we eat versus our actual sin of envying our neighbor, or our sin of having pride or wanting to have pride in looking better than our neighbor. Or our sin of just disobeying God when he whispered, hey, I want you to do this today. And you said, no, God, I can't. I got a workout scheduled. Right? If you're more worried about your food sins. And I talked about this in the 40 day workbook, the 40 day body image workbook. We talk about it on the 40 day journey.

[00:14:10]:

It's a big topic of conversation that comes up in those groups every single time. Because I think this is so important. Like, if the sins you are worried about are the sins around Food or exercising or not exercising. Friend, you are missing what God means when he calls us to live holy and blameless lives. That was my story. I felt guilty. Oh, I wanted to stay on plan today, God. And I didn't.

[00:14:39]:

I'm so sorry. I ate the Oreo. And I have to imagine God was like, heather, Like, I'm not worried about the Oreo. Like, I'm worried about how you spoke to your husband and why you ignored me when I told you to pray for that woman. And you know why? You're so envious of that woman who just lost 40 pounds. Like, that's. Those are the things that I want you to repent of. Those are the things that are separating me from you.

[00:15:02]:

Those who are in the flesh, cannot please God. Friend, don't make that about food. It's not. God is not your Weight Watchers leader. Now, I know what some of you are thinking. You're thinking, but what about self control? Heather? Self control is part of the fruit of the spirit. Now, here's what I love. Did you notice I said fruit of the spirit, not fruits of the spirit? Tim Keller does an amazing job of explaining why it has to be fruit singular of the spirit and not fruits, because they all go together.

[00:15:36]:

So let's look at that fruit of the spirit. The. The fruit of the spirit, according to Galatians 5, 22 and 23, is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. So to simply pick out self control and apply it to your food rules without self control being rooted in a context of loving God and loving others with a selfless affection, having a deep joy, having peace, being patient, being kind, being good, faithful, gentle, thinking about others more than you think about yourself. Self control is really about restraining yourself, your actions, your words, your thoughts for the sake of others so that you can love others. Well, self control is not about being able to have the willpower to do things, being to feed your idols, to have the restraint to do things so that you can, I don't know, feed your pride. Again, we've taken this concept of self control, which is a really important biblical concept, right? Because we do need to have restraint. I mean, my goodness, if Christians are out there acting like the rest of the world, saying whatever pops in their mind, not being loving, not being kind, thinking of themselves first, then we don't look much like Christians, right? But we've taken this concept of self control and we have just applied it specifically to the way we eat.

[00:17:10]:

And we are missing the point, because here's the truth. We can't just cherry pick scriptures that seem to match what the Weight Watchers booklets say, right? That's not what the Bible is. The Bible is not a supplemental Weight Watchers booklet. Scripture is to reveal to us who God is and what he's done for us and how amazing he is. It's about God. It's not about you and your weight loss goals. Amy Carlson again and I did a podcast episode, it was a couple years ago now, on what is self control and how does it connect to the way we eat? And I think it's really helpful if this has been a confusing concept to you, I'm going to link this one in the show notes as well. But yes, part of self control is having restraint, practicing moderation, practicing temperance, whatever word you want to say.

[00:17:59]:

But I just want to emphasize, friend, that moderation and temperance, these concepts don't come from a weight loss company created in this century. Right? It's not about changing your body to meet a certain weight loss goal. That's not your motivation to have self control. If your motivation to have self control is for selfish purposes, that is not what self self control is about. So go listen to that episode. I think you'll find it helpful. Okay, let's get back to our next way that we know from scripture, we can please God. Let me read to you this little bit from First John, chapter three, starting in verse 21.

[00:18:43]:

Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God. And whatever we ask, we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases Him. And this is his commandment that we believe in the name of Jesus, His Son, and love one another just as he has commanded us. Okay, so I think if you just take like the middle verse out of context, like you can say, do what pleases Him. And then I've heard people like translate that, like, do what pleases him, like avoiding sugar. Right? But you have to keep reading. Like, that's why it's so dangerous to cherry pick Bible verses out. You have to keep reading.

[00:19:22]:

And if you keep reading like it just says right here, John just says, and this is the commandment. This is what pleases Him. It pleases him. If we believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and if we love one another just as he's commanded us. Right? And then you can finish the chapter there first John 3. 24. Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us by the Spirit.

[00:19:49]:

Whom he has given us, right? We need to be abiding in Christ. And when we're abiding in Christ, whoo. That's actually when we're able to keep his commandments because we're not abiding in Him. It's just impossible. But, friend, again, none of these commandments are about staying on your plan. None of these commandments are about how to change your body, friend. Like, it's basics. It's 101, but first, Samuel 16, 7, right? God's not looking at the outside of the man.

[00:20:19]:

He's looking at your heart, friend. And here's what I want for you. I want for you to be free from believing that God is the Weight Watchers weigh in guy or woman. And instead, I want you to be free to pursue who God really is and pursue how to really live for Him. Life is so much more than a quest to have a different sized body, right? And I know some of you are really good at juggling, like, you can do both. Like, I'm trying to pursue my life and I'm trying to pursue my body, right? But friend, like, I was trying to do that. And I'll just tell you, I. My head and my heart were more focused on the body part than they were the life part.

[00:21:08]:

I was missing out on a lot. I was obsessed a lot. I was distracted a lot. I just. I missed so much. I wish I could have those years back. And I don't want you to miss any more of your life pursuing something because you believe that God will smile if you lose weight. If you want to lose weight, that's fine.

[00:21:32]:

I'm not against weight loss. Hear me? I'm against idolatry. I'm against believing things that are not biblically true. Gary Thomas said it best in his book Sacred Marriage. And I had a chance to hang out with Gary a bit a few months ago, and I told him that this is the line that wrecked my life. I think I might have even said to him, like, thanks for ruining my life. And then I quickly told him what I meant so he wasn't really confused. But God wants us to be holy more so than he wants us to be happy, right? And I hear so many of you saying, but weight loss will just make me happy.

[00:22:15]:

And then I talk to so many of you who have lost the weight, and it didn't make you happy. It didn't work. It didn't give you the joy you thought it would. Maybe it worked for a little bit, but, oh, it's just too much. It's too much stress, it's too much effort, it's too much striving, it's too much pressure. Right? Because then once you lose your weight, you gotta keep the weight off or you gotta keep losing more because otherwise compliments stop coming. Oh, goodness. It became a monster in your life.

[00:22:40]:

And what God wants us to chase is his holiness. Right? If you've got a disrupted disordered relationship with food, go get help for that. For sure. I do think it's difficult to get help for food issues until you've solved body image issues. So I'd encourage you to walk with us for a little while in coaching or in a 40 day journey first. But if you know you have an eating disorder, go get help for that. Of course, a friend, he wants you to be holy. And being holy is not about your weight, what's going on in your heart.

[00:23:15]:

That's my challenge for you today. Well, thanks for listening. I hope something today has helped you stop comparing and start living. Bye. Bye. The Compare two podcast is proud to be part of the Life Audio Podcast network. For more great Christian podcasts, go to lifeaudio.com that.