How to cope with 'body grief'

I haven't weighed myself in more than a decade, and I don't need to in order to tell you I gained weight during the pandemic. So did nearly half of American adults, which should help me feel less alone—but doesn't.

Mental-health experts have coined a term for what I'm experiencing: body grief. It means mourning, and eventually letting go of, our previous bodies—or those we envisioned ourselves one day having. This anguish typically revolves around a deep sense of loss, and can be triggered by weight gain due to factors like age, pregnancy, and mental or physical health challenges.

The experts I talked to shared a few ways to cope with body grief:

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