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Physical therapist and certified lymphedema specialist Maureen McBeth discusses her article “Beyond BMI: Why weight management must look inside the body.” Maureen explains why common tools like the bathroom scale and body …
Why measuring muscle mass matters more than tracking your weight [PODCAST]
An excerpt from Your Child Is Not Their Weight: Parenting in a Size-Obsessed World, with permission from the American Academy of Pediatrics, 2026.
A friend and colleague who is a doctor in adult medicine made this comment to me several years ago: “My patients with kids have a harder time with their health than those who do not have kids!”
I pointed out to her that the “patients with kids” she …
Communicating health to children: a pediatrician’s guide for parents
I worry about whether I can access a building much more at my current weight of 160 pounds than I did when I weighed 378 pounds.
My adult weight, until recently, averaged 300 pounds. But in early 2022 I weighed 350, and in 2013 I weighed 378.
At those weights, I worried about distances, the number of stairs, the width of doorways, and the strength of the furniture. Today, I still worry …
I lost 218 pounds and my ability to walk: a bariatric surgery regret
Stopping a GLP-1 abruptly and expecting maintenance of weight loss is not realistic. Even replacing it with a standard “eat less, move more” plan is not sufficient as it ignores what we know about hunger regulation and metabolic adaptation. A reduced-calorie diet and 30 minutes of daily walking, while helpful, are rarely sufficient to overcome the physiological forces defending prior weight.
Weight maintenance after significant loss requires managing cravings, psychological hunger …
GLP-1 weight regain: Why stopping medication leads to weight return
More than 40 percent of U.S. women live with obesity, yet about 3 percent of individuals eligible for treatment actually receive evidence-based medical care. The reasons for this gap are numerous: limited insurance coverage, lack of diagnosis, sociodemographic barriers, and deep-seated stigma. As a result, a condition that is both preventable and treatable continues to fuel a growing public health crisis for women.
Once viewed as only a lifestyle issue, we …
The obesity care gap for U.S. women
Most know me for my insights about medical malpractice litigation. However, ever since the 2000s, my practice has focused on medical weight loss management, and I have developed other insights. I developed these insights as a private practitioner, as an employee of a medical weight loss clinic, which may have gone out of business because it no longer has a public persona, and as a general contractor for a weight …
The economics of medical weight loss
I’ve seen clients start GLP-1 medications full of hope, and stop them feeling betrayed by their own biology. Some reached their limit with side effects: relentless nausea, fatigue, or the quiet loss of joy in eating. Others simply couldn’t afford to stay on. A few never saw the promised results at all. But for nearly all of them, the story ended the same way: one step forward, five steps back.
We …
Why you need a GLP-1 exit plan
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Pediatrician Wendy Schofer discusses her article, “Why food perfectionism harms parents.” Wendy explains how the intense worry over family eating habits and ultraprocessed foods is often a symptom of a deeper issue: …
A pediatrician explains the real danger of food perfectionism [PODCAST]
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Registered nurse June Pomeroy discusses her article, “How physician obesity affects patient care.” June explores the complex realities of weight bias within the medical field, examining how a physician’s own struggle with …
Understanding the hidden weight bias that harms patient care [PODCAST]
Obesity affects one-third of the adult U.S. population, including physicians, and is estimated to cost $147 billion annually. How does the Body Mass Index (BMI) of the physician affect the relationship with patients and the care provided? According to a study in Obesity magazine, “Understanding physician body weight as a possible barrier to obesity care is critical given the important role physicians can play in helping patients manage or lose …
How physician obesity affects patient care
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Internal medicine-pediatric physician Chrissie Ott discusses her article “When the pediatrician is the parent: a personal reckoning with childhood obesity.” Chrissie shares the deeply personal story of her own child’s struggles with …
When a pediatrician becomes the parent navigating childhood obesity [PODCAST]
In July 2017, 24-year-old mother Lucero Garza sought a natural diet pill to aid in her journey to lose weight gained after pregnancy. Without consulting a doctor, Garza bought the supplement’ Avitia Cobrax’ via Facebook. While the supplement was marketed as a natural remedy, its effects were anything but remedial. After consuming the product, Garza began experiencing severe headaches and ultimately fell into a coma. Tragically, she passed six …
The hidden dangers of over-the-counter weight-loss supplements
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Pediatrician and certified life and weight coach Karla Lester discusses her article, “An effective treatment using an effective care delivery model: Using telehealth to treat adolescents with obesity with GLP-1 medications.” She …
A new telehealth model for adolescent obesity [PODCAST]
When I first saw the CDC’s MMWR latest report on obesity medication prescribing for adolescents, my initial reaction was probably the same as yours: less than 1 percent of teens with obesity got these medications in 2023? That seems pretty dismal.
But then I took a step back and looked at what this data is telling us. And honestly? We’re missing the real story here.
We’re witnessing something historic.
Think about where …
Why new obesity medications for teens could be a game changer
I would never have thought I would be the one writing this piece.
I am a board-certified pediatrician and internist with a background in nutrition, well-versed in integrative medicine. Our family eats its fair share of kale, blueberries, and salmon. We hardly ever have a significant supply of junk food in the house. Fast food is a rarity, and she never even tasted juice in toddlerhood. And still, my child’s BMI …
When the pediatrician is the parent: a personal reckoning with childhood obesity
Cardiovascular disease continues to be the #1 killer of Americans, both men and women.
Obesity and being overweight increase the risk of cardiovascular risk factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes, but beyond these are independent risk factors for developing cardiovascular disease.
Unlike hypertension, which has been called the “silent killer” as its presence is too often unknown to people who have high blood pressure, Americans are rarely unaware …
Why treating obesity like a medical condition saves lives
You see it before the final whistle blows. A boy—ten, or maybe nine—walks off the mat like he’s carrying bricks on his back. His face is red, his eyes damp. Waiting for him is his father, arms folded like a verdict. “You lost to that kid? You were up by two.” The boy opens his mouth, but nothing he says will be enough. The response is swift: a shake of …
Extreme weight cutting harms health and resilience in youth wrestling
WeightWatchers (WW) recently completed a broader financial reorganization, realigning leadership with a sharper focus on clinical innovation and women’s health, including menopause support. The reorganization includes appointing a chief medical officer to lead a more integrated, medically informed approach.
WW’s reorganization bankruptcy was driven by mounting debt and pressure from newer weight-loss therapy products, namely GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. It was also impacted by a shifting landscape where traditional …
WeightWatchers shifts to value-based care with GLP-1 strategy
Despite decades of public health messaging urging children to “eat less and move more,” rates of pediatric obesity continue to rise globally. In the U.S. alone, nearly 1 in 5 children and adolescents aged 2–19 years have obesity, with higher rates among those from low-income or minority backgrounds. While caloric balance is a basic principle of weight regulation, the oversimplification of obesity into a matter of willpower neglects the …
Why telling kids to eat less and move more fails to address obesity
We often speak of weight as a matter of simple math—calories in, calories out. But the body doesn’t work like an equation when it’s grieving or under chronic stress. It behaves more like a survivor, clinging tightly to resources in the face of perceived danger. And in that physiological equation, cortisol—our primary stress hormone—plays a central role.
The cortisol connection
Cortisol is released by the adrenal glands in response to stress through …
When the weight won’t budge: the hidden physiology of grief, stress, and set point
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