World Obesity Day
Challenging the Narrative of a "Weight Crisis"
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Content Warning: This post contains multiple references to the "o-word" (obesity) which I typically avoid. I'm using it intentionally to address specific claims and terminology used by health organizations, but I want to make it clear that I firmly reject this framing of fat bodies.
Yesterday was World Obesity Day (March 4th), and I have some thoughts.
As Dr. Monica Peralta aptly put it in last week’s podcast episode, this is essentially “a day to celebrate the eradication of fat people.” What a concept, right?
Let me be crystal clear about something: The real health crisis isn’t fat bodies. The real health crisis is weight stigma and weight cycling. Decades of research show that weight stigma and repeated cycles of weight loss and regain cause measurable harm to physical and mental health – yet this evidence is consistently ignored in favor of pathologizing fatness itself.
The World Obesity Federation, creators of World Obesity Day, paint fatness as a global health crisis requiring urgent intervention. Yet in a twist of painful irony, they (among others) are responsible for creating the very crisis they claim to be solving. By promoting weight-centric approaches to health, they perpetuate the weight stigma health crisis that affects millions worldwide.
Let's Be Real Clear Here
“Obesity” is not a disease. Despite all the claims and medicalized language, it’s simply another fancy way of saying “fat.” That’s it. It’s a pathologizing term designed to make fatness sound like a medical condition rather than a natural expression of body diversity.
Weight Stigma: The Documented Health Crisis
Weight stigma manifests in healthcare settings when providers attribute all our health issues to our weight. In doing so, they delay treatment, miss important diagnoses, and provide substandard care to Fat patients. It also appears in employment discrimination, educational barriers, the criminal justice system, and most importantly through social isolation and rejection.
These experiences trigger the chronic stress responses with genuine, measurable physiological impacts including:
- Elevated cortisol levels
- Hormonal disruption
- Increased inflammation markers
- Impaired cognitive performance
- Higher blood pressure
- Avoidance of healthcare
These effects contribute to the very health disparities incorrectly attributed to fatness itself.
This Year's World Obesity Day Messaging
This year’s World Obesity Day messaging is particularly cunning. They’re attempting to shift focus away from individual blame by saying things like:
“Let’s put a spotlight on the systems. For too long, responses to the obesity crisis have been focused on individuals. It’s time we turn our attention to the systems that are failing us.”
On the surface, this sounds progressive. But note the framing of fatness as a “crisis”. Yes, they mention health systems, government systems, food systems, media, and our environments. They acknowledge these systems are contributing to increasing rates of “obesity” worldwide.
But they still insist that “obesity” as a complex, chronic disease and a driver of other diseases. As long as fatness is framed as a sickness, there will always be a need for a cure. The more people that are ‘infected’, the more of a ‘crisis’ it becomes. Soon it becomes an ‘epidemic’, then a ‘pandemic’ and before we know it, we’re at ‘war’.
The Real Harm: Weight Cycling and Its Consequences
What World Obesity Day doesn’t acknowledge is how the continued medicalization of fat bodies directly contributes to:
- Weight cycling – The repeated loss and regain of weight that causes significant metabolic and psychological harm. Research shows weight cycling increases insulin resistance, raises inflammation markers, and disrupts hormonal balance – the very factors blamed on fatness.
- Weight stigma – The discrimination and prejudice that impacts everything from healthcare access to employment opportunities. Studies consistently demonstrate that weight stigma experiences correlate with poorer health outcomes independent of BMI.
- Self-blame – The internalized shame that affects mental health and wellbeing, leading to depression, anxiety, and diminished quality of life.
Consider the evidence we’ve discussed in previous episodes of The Fat Doctor Podcast and explored in detail in my No Weigh program. Conditions like high blood pressure, osteoarthritis, and idiopathic intracranial hypertension are all treated with weight loss. And yet the research simply doesn’t support this.
For example, the 2016 NICE guidelines for NAFLD explicitly state: “It is generally assumed, but not proven, that weight loss may help to reverse NAFLD”. And despite this candid admission of lacking evidence, weight loss remains the default prescription. Similarly, studies show weight loss before knee replacement surgery provides no improvement in surgical outcomes or recovery, yet fat patients are routinely denied this surgery until they lose weight.
Medical research is riddled with weight stigma and the result is clear: Fat patients are routinely denied proper care, instead receiving a weight loss prescription regardless of their actual health needs.
A Different Approach to World Obesity Day
This month, I’m focusing on challenging the World Obesity Day narrative by:
- Directly critiquing World Obesity Day’s framing of fatness as a disease
- Highlighting how the medicalization of fat bodies drives weight cycling and stigma
- Presenting evidence that counters claims about conditions supposedly caused by fatness
- Offering truly weight-inclusive approaches to health conditions
Check out noweigh.org for free resources on condition and symptoms that are routinely blamed on fat. For a deep dive into the evidence (or lack thereof) for weight loss as a treatment for specific conditions, there’s my masterclass membership. You’ll have instant access to a library of topics where we explore what the research actually shows, and how we can advocate for evidence-based care regardless of body size.
Evidence-Based Alternatives to World Obesity Day Approaches
Rather than focusing on weight loss, evidence supports:
- Treating health conditions with appropriate medications and interventions regardless of body size
- Acknolwedging and validating how social determinants of health, colonialism, and income disparities impact wellbeing rather than blaming fat
- Implementing weight-inclusive healthcare approaches that prioritize wellbeing over weight
- Eliminating weight discrimination in medical settings, employment, education etc.
The weight stigma health crisis requires immediate attention. Our bodies deserve evidence-based care free from size-based discrimination.
If you’re tired of being told to “just lose weight” instead of receiving proper medical attention, or if you’re a healthcare provider wanting to deliver more effective, ethical care to patients of all sizes, I hope you’ll join me in challenging these harmful narratives.
The first step toward truly addressing health disparities is to stop pathologizing natural body diversity and start addressing the real drivers of poor health outcomes: weight stigma, healthcare inequities, and the continued promotion of unsustainable weight loss interventions.
Want to dive deeper into this topic? Check out my No Weigh program or join my Masterclass Membership for evidence-based approaches to health beyond weight loss. And be sure to share this World Obesity Day alternative perspective with others seeking a more compassionate, evidence-based approach to health.