What is Weight-Neutral Medicine?
Weight-neutral medicine is medical care that focuses on building healthy behaviors rather than focusing on weight. The majority of concepts of weight-neutral medicine come from Health at Every Size by Lindo Bacon, PhD. I highly recommend reading this book if you would like further information on the studies debunking the connection between weight and health. Another great option to learn more is Body Respect by Lindo Bacon, PhD and Lucy Aphramor.
Many medical providers overestimate the impact of weight on health and this leads to poor health outcomes. A patient who has a larger body may go to the doctor complaining of knee pain only to be told it is because they are overweight. The patient’s pain may be in no way connected to their size—they could have an autoimmune condition causing inflammation, bone cancer, etc. For this reason, people who have larger bodies are often dismissed by their providers or avoid seeking health care because they are disrespected and told that losing weight will solve all their health issues. I also find the practice of automatically weighing patients regardless of what brought them into the office to be silly. There are a few conditions for which tracking weight is important (cancer treatment, pregnancy, heart failure, chronic kidney disease, pediatric patients, eating disorders), but outside of these scenarios—I find weight to be pretty unimportant!
In almost every health scenario, we have been taught that having a larger body is bad for health, but this is simply untrue. Patients who have high blood pressure are told it will come down if they lose weight, but this is often false. Additionally, people in larger bodies who have high blood pressure are less likely to have a heart attack than those in smaller bodies. High blood pressure is only one example of how the medical system’s obsession with weight is downright incorrect.
I believe one of the solutions to this issue is to spread information regarding the myths that we have been taught by the medical system and the diet industry. I also think practicing medicine from a weight-neutral lens is a gift and responsibility. I acknowledge that I have a smaller, white, cis-gendered body which provides me significant privilege in this world and I aim to use those privileges for good. I still talk about eating and exercise with my patients—this is an important part of health, but I do not encourage weight loss. Some patients come to my office hoping to lose weight, some patients lose weight as a consequence of improving their health behaviors, but this is never the goal.
About the Author:
Alli Erdahl is a Naturopathic Doctor practicing at Orchid Integrative Medicine in Chaska, Minnesota.
