In part 1 we discussed the issues with the study “Energy expenditure and ob*sity across the economic spectrum” by McGrosky et al. Literally hundreds of people reached out to me to write about it and most of them were asking about the article from the Washington Post “What causes ob*sity? A major new study is upending common wisdom.” Today I’m going to talk about that article. If you haven’t read part 1, I recommend checking that out first, because I’m going to be referring to it a lot. Get full ...
Aug 20, 2025•14 min
Wow did a lot of you ask me to write about the article “What causes ob*sity? A major new study is upending common wisdom” from The Washington Post. The article is about a study called “Energy expenditure and ob*sity across the economic spectrum” by McGrosky et al.We’ll talk about the study in part 1 and the reporting of it in part 2. Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weightandhealthcare.substack.com/subscribe...
Aug 16, 2025•16 min
This is the Weight and Healthcare newsletter ! If you like what you are reading, please consider subscribing and/or sharing! In part 1 we discussed general issues with claims about higher-weight patients and surgical outcomes. Today, we’ll talk about three important questions I think we need to be asking about the idea of higher-weight people having higher complication rates and/or worse outcomes. Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weightandhealthcare.substack.com/subscribe...
Aug 13, 2025•8 min
BMI-based denials of care are devastating and can have serious negative impacts on people’s health, lives, and quality of life. In some cases they are, in fact, life or death. I have a series here that talks about this in detail, including options if you are dealing with a BMI-based denial of care and resources if you want to fight them. Today I want to talk about a common reason that is used to (attempt to) “justify” BMI-based denials of care. Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weighta...
Aug 09, 2025•6 min
In part 1 I started discussing the ABC News article “GLP-1s work but when they're stopped, the effects stop too: Expert” We discussed the fact that in order to buy the claims their “expert” makes, you first have to buy the dubious claim that simply existing in a higher-weight body, regardless of actual health status, is a health condition requiring treatment (which I wrote about in detail here and here .) We also learned about Dr. Louis Aronne, the “expert” they are quoting who, prior to taking ...
Aug 06, 2025•13 min
There are a couple of online articles floating around that literally hundred of you have asked me to write about. One is the Washington Post “reporting” on the study about eating and body size. That study is…a lot, so while I’m slogging through that article and the study it references, today I’m going to write about the other article. Published by ABC News and called “GLP-1s work but when they're stopped, the effects stop too: Expert” Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weightandhealthca...
Aug 02, 2025•9 min
In part 1 , I offered a framework of questions for healthcare providers (or others) to ask themselves before they offer unsolicited health advice to a higher-weight person (or, really, any person.) Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weightandhealthcare.substack.com/subscribe
Jul 30, 2025•8 min
A couple years ago I wrote a piece about what to think about before offering unsolicited advice to higher-weight friends/family/strangers about their health . Today’s piece extends from that. While it can apply to family/friends/randos at the drug store, this is intended for healthcare providers and other health/public health professionals and educators whether you are one yourself, or you want to share this with healthcare providers and educators you know. I’ve written extensively about the res...
Jul 26, 2025•8 min
In part 1 we discussed the basics of substituting weight loss for healthcare and accommodation. In part 2 we discussed issues with the likelihood of achieving weight loss, even if it was appropriate to insist that higher-weight patients become thinner before accessing care (and I do not think it is). In part 3 , we discussed the issues of weight loss being promoted as a solution to accessibility. In part 4 , we looked at a case study. Today, we’re going to talk about what can be done to stop the...
Jul 23, 2025•10 min
In part 1 we discussed the basics of substituting weight loss for healthcare and accommodation. In part 2 we discussed issues with the likelihood of achieving weight loss, even if it was appropriate to insist that higher-weight patients become thinner before accessing care (and I don’t believe it is.). In part 3 , we discussed the issues with weight loss being promoted as a solution to accessibility. Today we’ll look at a real experience with this. Many facilities, including physical and mental ...
Jul 19, 2025•5 min
In part 1 we discussed the basics of substituting weight loss for healthcare and accommodation. In part 2 we discussed issues with the likelihood of achieving weight loss, even if it was appropriate to insist that higher-weight patients become thinner before accessing care. Today we’re going to discuss the issues with delaying care for weight loss. Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weightandhealthcare.substack.com/subscribe...
Jul 16, 2025•4 min
In part 1 of this series we looked at the basic issues of a healthcare system that is allowed to demand weight loss before patients are able to access healthcare. In this section, we’ll look at BMI-based denials of care. These occur when a patient is denied care unless or until they reach a certain BMI. It is often justified by the idea that higher-weight patients have more complications/worse outcomes and that weight loss will improve this. But it’s far from being that simple. Get full access t...
Jul 12, 2025•8 min
Substituting weight loss for health and/or healthcare accommodation is a primary source of harm enacted on higher-weight people by the healthcare industry. I’ve had a bunch of requests asking me to write about it from a macro perspective . This is complicated and there is a lot to discuss so I’m breaking it up into five parts. (I’m thrilled that you are reading this whether you stumbled onto it or are a free or paid subscriber and today I want to offer some extra gratitude to my paid subscribers...
Jul 09, 2025•7 min
In Part 1 we looked at the basics of a study that compared the two newest GLP-1 weight loss drugs against each other - Novo Nordisk’s Semaglutide (Wegovy) and Eli Lilly’s Tirzepatide (Zepbound) The trial was funded by Eli Lilly and while many of the authors took money from the makers of both drugs, the only authors (some of whom were statisticians) who were employed by and owned stock in a drug company were from Eli Lilly. While that isn’t proof of bias, it’s certainly a red flag. Today we’ll lo...
Jul 05, 2025•16 min
On May 11, 2025, the study “Tirzepatide as Compared with Semaglutide for the Treatment of Ob*sity” was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. This study was, essentially, a cage match between the two newest weight loss drugs to see which one created more weight loss. Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weightandhealthcare.substack.com/subscribe
Jul 02, 2025•8 min
The way that higher-weight patients are discussed (in research, in medical/healthcare education and training, and even in interventions meant to increase accessibility in healthcare) can vastly increase weight stigma among healthcare providers. Today I want to talk about three terms that are often used that create this issue. Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weightandhealthcare.substack.com/subscribe...
Jun 28, 2025•7 min
I recently wrote about a study that questioned the assumption that higher-weight causes health issues . Today I’m writing about a study that questions the assumption that weight loss improves health issues in higher-weight people. Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weightandhealthcare.substack.com/subscribe...
Jun 14, 2025•11 min
Weight stigma does untold harm and, especially in healthcare, it can be deadly. One of the most important things that each of us can do to reduce weight stigma and the harm it causes is to act (when we can) when we find ourselves in situations where weight stigma is happening. Today I have an example of quick push-back and a more in-depth example. Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weightandhealthcare.substack.com/subscribe...
Jun 11, 2025•6 min
In the past we’ve talked about how the health issues that get blamed on being higher-weight may actually be due to weight stigma and/or weight cycling and/or healthcare inequalities . Recently reader Conner let me know what this 2021 study whose bottom line finding was “adverse consequences currently attributed to ob*sity could be attributed to hyperinsulinemia (or another proximate factor.” Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weightandhealthcare.substack.com/subscribe...
Jun 07, 2025•5 min
I got the following question from reader Jill who attended a recent talk that I gave at her medical center: ”During the question and answer part you mentioned a contest to win weight loss surgery. Did that really happen? I hope you’ll write about it on your newsletter.” Yeah, it did and yes, I will Jill, thanks for asking. Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weightandhealthcare.substack.com/subscribe...
Jun 04, 2025•7 min
In part 1 we talked about the general issues with giving the weight loss industry the benefit of the doubt. In part 2 we talked about the specifics of this for the GLP-1 weight loss meds. That brings us back to our original question from family doctor Elena: I’m a weight-neutral family doctor. I was talking to a colleague about my issues with the GLP-1s and how there is no evidence that supports that taking them for life will lead to sustained weight loss or health benefits. He said “There’s no ...
May 28, 2025•5 min
In part 1 we discussed the general issues with giving the weight loss industry the benefit of the doubt. Today we are going to talk about this as it applies to GLP-1s. This started with an email I got from Elena: ” I’m a weight-neutral family doctor. I was talking to a colleague about my issues with the GLP-1s and how there is no evidence that supports that taking them for life will lead to sustained weight loss or health benefits. He said “There’s no evidence that they won’t.” It strikes me as ...
May 24, 2025•6 min
I got this email from reader Elena: I’m a weight-neutral family doctor. I was talking to a colleague about my issues with the GLP-1s and how there is no evidence that supports that taking them for life will lead to sustained weight loss or health benefits. He said “There’s no evidence that they won’t.” It strikes me as wrong, but how do I argue with that This same question came up in our monthly subscriber Ask Me Anything as well. I’ll address it specifically but first I want to talk about how t...
May 21, 2025•6 min
We are going to start out today with the story of Dr Thomas Kraut and then talk about what it that story demonstrates and what we can do about it. Content note that this story is tragic. This was originally brought to my attention by reader Suzanne. I read every account I could about the situation and pieced them together. Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weightandhealthcare.substack.com/subscribe...
May 17, 2025•6 min
I got a question from reader Giana who asked: I feel like I’ve seen a hundred news reports claiming that the GLP1 drugs will cure anything and everything…joint pain, heart attacks, addiction, on and on and on. Is it possible that they can do all of these amazing things or is this just the new snake oil? I’ve also seen a bunch of claims about the healing powers of GLP-1 drugs. It is possible that GLP-1s have health benefits, but there are some potential issues with these studies that I want to po...
May 10, 2025•7 min
In parts 1 and 2 we looked into a 2018 journal article called Management of osteoarthritis of the knee in younger patients by Khan, Adili, Winemaker, and Bhandari. It turns out we aren’t the only ones looking into it. As I was finishing up this piece, I was googling to make sure I had a list of all the links I used in the piece (while I don’t include links to pieces with weight stigma here, I always keep a list in my draft,) I stumbled onto a letter responding to the Khan et al. article called “...
May 07, 2025•8 min
In part 1 we began discussing the article Management of osteoarthritis of the knee in younger patients by Khan, Adili, Winemaker, and Bhandari and their claim that weight loss is an appropriate treatment for osteoarthritis. We examined one of their citations and today we’ll look at the other. Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weightandhealthcare.substack.com/subscribe...
May 03, 2025•8 min
Recently I received an email from a physician who had just attended a talk I gave. She asked what I thought about a study that “shows that weight loss is an evidence-based treatment for OA” (osteoarthritis). I started investigating the issues with the study and, in the course of researching and writing about it, I came across an absolute gem by Ilona Hale. In parts 1 and 2 we’ll look at my analysis and in part 3 we’ll look at Dr. Hale’s. Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weightandhealt...
Apr 30, 2025•6 min
I frequently write about types of weight stigma and bias . Today I want to talk about a specific form called Surveillance Bias, I’ve also heard it called Detection Bias or Testing Bias. I want to talk about how this kind of bias can lead to claims that a health issue is more likely to be found in a group of people when actually the difference is/may be because of the way that group of people were surveilled/tested. It’s really important to look for this type of bias because when this happens, it...
Apr 23, 2025•8 min
In part 1 we looked at the 2022 article by Sierżantowicz et al., “Quality of Life after Bariatric Surgery A Systematic Review.” In part 2 we took a deeper look into two of the studies they included. In part 3 we’ll examine their conclusions. Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weightandhealthcare.substack.com/subscribe...
Apr 19, 2025•7 min
