Weight and Healthcare

Remember when I wrote about the FDA Averse Events Reporting System and how the drug companies are required to report adverse events? Novo Nordisk just got a warning from the FDA for…not doing that. Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weightandhealthcare.substack.com/subscribe

I’m very excited to announce the culmination of a project I’ve been working on for Project HEAL. They are an incredible organization that works to break down systemic, healthcare, and financial barriers to eating disorder healing. They already had a series of templates for insurance appeals and they reached out to me to create a blog post and templates to appeal weight-based denials and failure to accommodate. Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weightandhealthcare.substack.com/subscribe

In Part 1 we looked at the problematic justification used by the Colorado Legislature to pass legislation following massive lobbying from the weight loss industry and their astroturf “patient advocacy” groups.Today I am going to talk about the actual contents of the law and am grateful for input from an attorney with many years’ experience in health care law and regulation who was willing to provide thoughts but did want to note that they are not admitted to practice in Colorado. Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weightandhealthcare.substack.com/subscribe

A bill in support of weight loss interventions, particularly GLP-1 diet drugs, has passed the Colorado state legislature and been signed into law. Very similar bills are being pushed by the weight loss industry (and their astroturf “patient-advocacy” groups, particularly the “Ob*sity Action Coalition”) in individual states and federally with the goal of increasing insurance coverage (and through that the market, and through that the profits) for weight loss drugs and other weight loss interventions.I’m going to go through the bill bit by bit as it relates to weight science, weight stigma, healthcare, and areas that suggest weight loss industry influence. Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weightandhealthcare.substack.com/subscribe

I got the following question from reader LouAnna who asked“I just saw that they are developing even more new weight loss drugs of the GLP1 type that (supposedly, of course) create even more lost weight. What ever happened to the claim that we just need to lose 5-10% ? Don’t these new weight loss drugs already claim that they exceed that? Will it never stop?”This is a great question and I’m happy to offer my thoughts. Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weightandhealthcare.substack.com/subscribe

In part 1 we discussed a study that showed that malnutrition is very rarely studied in randomized controlled trials for GLP-1s. In part 2 we looked at the findings of research that studied nutritional deficiencies in GLP-1 users. Today we’ll talk about the implications of these findings, including what we know, what we don’t, and what we should. Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weightandhealthcare.substack.com/subscribe

In Part 1 we talked about a study that showed that most randomized controlled trials for GLP-1s failed to assess nutrition/possible nutrition deficits. Today I’m going to summarize some research that did look at these possible issues in people using GLP-1s. In Part 3 I’ll talk about the implications of all of this. Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weightandhealthcare.substack.com/subscribe

I subscribe to a borderline ridiculous number of medical publications from which I receive an absolutely ridiculous number of emails. One headline caught my eye “GLP-1s Bringing Back Scurvy?” Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weightandhealthcare.substack.com/subscribe

I received the following reader question:My name is Mary and I’m a family doc (you can use my first name if you print this.) I wouldn’t say that I’m fully onboard with being weight inclusive but I’ve been reading your work and I can’t deny that what you are writing makes sense and is grounded in research (some of which I had never heard of in any of my training.) I have been thinking about what you wrote when you said how important it is that we ask our patients questions instead of making assumptions. I will admit to making assumptions about diet and exercise with patients who are what you would call higher weight. Thank you for helping me see that, but I’m having difficulty with what to do instead and how to ask the questions and I thought others might be as well. Is this something you would be interested in writing about?Thanks for the introspection, the open-mindedness, and the great question, I’m happy to write about this. Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weightandhealthcare.substack.com/subscribe

In Part 1 we looked into the authors and methodology of the study The Acute Inflammatory Effects of Weight Stigma: An Experimental Pilot Study which was published in August, 2025. In part 2 we’ll look at the results. Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weightandhealthcare.substack.com/subscribe

A new study in this vein has come out that looks at the link between weight stigma and inflammation. The study is called The Acute Inflammatory Effects of Weight Stigma: An Experimental Pilot Study and it was published in August, 2025. In part 1 we’ll look at the study authors and the methodology, and in part 2 we’ll look at the results. Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weightandhealthcare.substack.com/subscribe

In part 1 we discussed the issues with the decades-long practice of healthcare providers prescribing behavior-based weight loss not based on the evidence (which shows that the vast majority of patients will lose weight short-term and then regain it long-term) but on the belief/hope that every one of their patients will experience the very rare “Best Case Scenario” of significant, sustained weight loss. Today we’re going to talk about how the new GLP-1 weight loss drugs are taking this problem to new lows. Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weightandhealthcare.substack.com/subscribe

When it comes to recommending weight loss, healthcare has always had what I call a Best Case Scenario Problem. I think the best way for patients to protect ourselves from this is to understand it so that we can spot it when it’s happening so in Part 1 I’ll examine how this works (in the past and currently) around behavior-based interventions and then in part 2 we’ll look at how GLP-1s are driving an increase in this problem and creating even more harm and what we can do if this problem happens to us. Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weightandhealthcare.substack.com/subscribe

I’ve had a bunch of requests to write about this so here you go! Novo Nordisk has a long and sordid history of misdeeds, many of which I’ve written about previously. Now they have a new one to add to the list. Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weightandhealthcare.substack.com/subscribe

This is the Weight and Healthcare newsletter! If you like what you are reading, please consider subscribing and/or sharing!In Part 1 we started discussing the “Million Pound Challenge” created by Toby Cosgrove and Dr. Michael Roizen in which they are “challenging” an unknown number of people to collectively lose one million pounds. In part 2 we’ll discuss the program itself. (If you haven’t read part 1, I recommend it to fully understand part 2.) As always I’ll indent the quotes from the website so that you can avoid harmful weight stigma if you choose. They explain the program as a 3-step process:Step 1: Enroll Your OrgRegister your health system. Get access to a variety of resources in the Million Pound Challenge Tool Kit for your entire team.Step 2: Your Staff, Your WayEmployees can use the tools provided, join their own programs, work with providers—whatever works. Your organization decides how to structure participation.Step 3: Track ProgressThe only requirement? Track results with a monthly check with your Challenge coordinator. Watch as individual effort becomes collective momentum toward one million pounds.This is where they make things incredibly clear - literally the only requirement is to track weight loss. This isn’t about health metrics, there is no way to make this program weight neutral or to focus on health - weight loss is the only metric and tracking it is the only thing the program requires.And when they blithely say “whatever works” let’s be clear that a century of research finds that, unless their goal is to create weight cycling, nothing does. So there is no common intervention and all they are tracking is weight loss. Right. And how is weight loss tracked? Per the FAQs (emphasis mine)“Your Challenge ambassador must log your team’s results monthly with your assigned Challenge Coordinator—this is the only requirement. Individual weights remain completely private. Only aggregate organizational totals are posted on the community leaderboard so you can see how your organization compares nationally.”Um, they aren’t private if you have to share them with your company’s challenge ambassador (and I have serious concerns that someone who would sign up for that job may be the last person that a coworker would want to tell their weight.) Workplace programs (or any programs) that include a weight loss component have significant risks to physical and mental health, including through eating disorders. But programs that compel people to compete solely on the basis of weight loss, as this one does, can actually encourage participation in dangerous behaviors in order to create weight loss.Measure your organization’s progress, celebrate your success stories, and recognize your top-performing teams. Join leaders at quarterly events, Chamber Summit, Aspen Ideas Festival, and HLTH to keep momentum strong.Do. Not. Do. This. Another huge issue with this, and all workplace/organization weight-loss challenges, besides the issues with disordered eating and eating disorders and weight cycling, is that it can single out people who aren’t participating or “achieving” in ways that create a hostile work environment for them. It can mean that those who have chosen an evidence-based weight-neutral path (either due to a history of eating disorders or other reasons) have to choose between their physical and mental health and being seen as “not a team player.” It can lead to organizations under valuing employees who, due to many reasons including disability, chronic illness, and more, cannot participate in the initiative at all (or in ways that make them “top-performing”) which can lead them to being seen by subordinates, peers, and bosses as a “drag” on the team or having less value to the organization. This is not surprising from someone like program co-founder Toby Cosgrove who once gleefully told the New York Times magazine that he didn’t want to hire higher-weight people (as the CEO of the Cleveland Clinic,) but let’s not follow in those bigoted footsteps.After 12 months, we’ll have collectively proven what we’ve known all along—that sustainable health outcomes are achievable. Winners celebrated at HLTH 2026. Every organization recognized for leading the revolution.There is so much wrong with this that I scarcely know where to begin. As I said in part 1, “prove” is a very strong word so I expect robust research and lots of it (spoiler alert - I’m going to be disappointed again, but in no way surprised, again.) These two doctors should know better than to suggest that anything about “sustainable health outcomes” can be “proven” by a random “challenge” that only lasts a year has no common intervention, and only measures weight loss. This does not have the ring of sound science. The truth is, we can’t even be sure how many of the participants would get thin enough that program co-founder Toby Cosgrove would think they deserved to be employed.I don’t want to spend too much time analyzing the deck chairs on this titanic

Reader Shannon Roosma-Goldstein, MPH, BSN, RN, NPD-BC recently reached out to me because a professional healthcare organization she belongs to had sent her an email encouraging her, as a member, to participate with the organization in the “Million Pound Challenge.”In Part 1 we’ll look at the basic issues with the challenge and who is behind it. In part 2 we’ll look at the details of the program, and in part 3 we’ll talk about what you can do if your workplace announces a program like this, including with sample letters written by Shannon that you can use as a template. Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weightandhealthcare.substack.com/subscribe