We know that obesity is a real problem in this country (and most of the western world, to be fair), but blaming it for all of our healthcare woes is cheap and completely inaccurate.
While maintaining a healthy body weight, eating a nutritious diet, and incorporating exercise into our daily lives are all positive steps to take, being thin isn’t an automatic ticket to perfect health. As a result, doctors are finally speaking up about something they’ve known for years: the idea that dropping pounds automatically makes everything better is complete nonsense, and it’s actually making people sicker instead of healthier.
1. Most people can’t actually keep weight off long-term.
A major study published in the BMJ in July 2025 found that most people with higher body weight simply can’t sustain long-term weight loss through lifestyle changes, no matter how hard they try or how motivated they are. The research shows that participants regain on average 30% to 40% of their lost weight within 1 year, and longer-term follow-up shows a gradual return to baseline weight levels or above.
It’s not due to a lack of willpower or giving up too easily; it’s basic biology fighting against artificial restriction. Your body has multiple systems designed to maintain its set point weight, and when you try to override those systems through dieting, your metabolism, hunger hormones, and brain chemistry all work together to get you back to where you started.
2. Weight stigma from doctors is making patients sicker.
Analysis of 25 studies by UCL scientists found ‘extensive evidence’ that doctors and medical professionals were essentially fat-shaming their patients due to unconscious bias, and a 2022 Oxford study found that 69% of doctors reported biased attitudes toward people living with obesity. When patients feel judged about their weight, they’re actually less likely to follow medical advice or seek care when they need it.
Recent UK statistics show that 42% of people didn’t feel comfortable discussing their weight with their GP, and many avoid healthcare entirely due to fear of being stigmatised. So the very approach that’s supposed to help people get healthier is actually keeping them away from the medical care they need.
3. The advice GPs give about weight loss is usually garbage.
A University of Oxford study analysing 159 recorded GP consultations found that weight-loss advice from doctors was generally vague, superficial, and commonly not supported by scientific evidence. Most of the time, doctors just told patients to “eat less and move more” without any practical guidance on how to actually do that sustainably.
The study found that 97% of weight loss advice was abstract or general, with doctors providing actual how-to information only 20% of the time. They’re basically telling people to solve a complex biological and psychological puzzle with a fortune cookie slogan, then acting surprised when it doesn’t work.
4. BMI is a terrible measure of individual health.
A 1972 study in the Journal of Chronic Diseases concluded that BMI is only a reliable indicator of a population’s health, not an individual’s, but we’re still using it 50+ years later like it means something definitive about each person. The BMI system was never designed to assess individual health risks, yet doctors use it to make assumptions about patients all the time.
UK health guidance even acknowledges that lower BMI thresholds should be used for adults in Black, Asian, and other minority ethnic groups, which shows how arbitrary and culturally biased the whole system is. If the measurements change based on race, maybe the measurements aren’t actually measuring what we think they’re measuring.
5. Weight stigma literally causes the health problems it claims to prevent.
Weight stigma is prospectively related to heightened mortality and other chronic diseases, and most ironically, it actually increases risk of developing obesity through multiple pathways. The shame and stress of being judged about your weight triggers biological responses that make your body more likely to hold onto fat and develop the exact health problems that weight bias claims to be concerned about.
Weight stigma causes psychological distress, depression, anxiety, and often leads to decreased health motivation, avoidance of healthcare, social isolation, reduced physical activity and disordered eating behaviours. So, the “concern” about people’s weight is actually creating the very problems it pretends to solve.
6. Healthy behaviours matter more than the number on the scale.
Doctors are increasingly recognising that weight alone doesn’t give an adequate picture of someone’s health, and they should focus on evidence-based care that reflects individual needs regardless of weight. You can improve your blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, and overall fitness without losing a single pound, but the medical system often ignores these improvements if your weight stays the same.
Health at Every Size interventions show maintained improvements in dietary behaviour, self-efficacy, and body image even when weight doesn’t change. People can get healthier in measurable ways that have nothing to do with shrinking their bodies, but our weight-obsessed culture treats those improvements like they don’t count.
7. The “obesity paradox” shows that heavier people often live longer.
Dr. Natasha Larmie, a UK GP advocating for weight-inclusive medicine, points out that we dismiss the “obesity paradox” because the establishment is reluctant to believe it, even though research consistently shows that people in higher weight categories often have better health outcomes in certain conditions. We call it a “paradox” because it contradicts our beliefs, not because the science is wrong.
The data keeps showing that moderately higher weight can be protective for older adults and people with certain chronic conditions, but instead of updating our understanding, we just act confused and keep pushing weight loss anyway. Maybe the paradox isn’t that heavier people are healthier; maybe the paradox is that we keep ignoring evidence that doesn’t fit our biases.
8. Weight-focused treatment creates eating disorders.
The pressure to lose weight can lead to disordered eating and unhealthy habits, with the consequences going far beyond the physical. When doctors prescribe weight loss without addressing the psychological complexity of food and body image, they’re essentially recommending restricted eating to people who might be vulnerable to developing full-blown eating disorders.
Medical students with obesity report high levels of alcohol and substance use to cope with internalised weight stigma, showing how the medical system’s weight bias affects even future doctors. If the people training to be healthcare providers are struggling with the mental health impacts of weight stigma, imagine how much worse it is for regular patients.
9. Doctors avoid doing proper medical exams on heavier patients.
Studies show physicians were less inclined to do cervical and breast cancer exams in larger patients than they were in smaller patients, which means that weight bias is literally preventing people from getting life-saving medical care. Doctors make assumptions about heavier patients and skip important screenings, then blame the patients when their health problems go undetected.
This medical neglect disguised as concern about weight means that treatable conditions get missed or diagnosed late, creating worse health outcomes that then get blamed on the patient’s weight instead of the doctor’s failure to provide adequate care. It’s a vicious cycle where medical bias creates the problems it claims to be preventing.
10. The Health at Every Size approach actually works better.
Health at Every Size interventions focus on healthy behaviours rather than weight loss and show promising results in improving eating behaviours, with some studies showing maintained benefits and even weight reduction in some participants. When you remove the pressure to lose weight and focus on actual health behaviours, people often get healthier naturally.
UCL research found that weight-inclusive approaches to healthcare education were effective in challenging stereotypes and improving attitudes among medical professionals. When doctors learn to provide care without weight bias, both the patients and the healthcare system benefit from better outcomes and reduced stigma.
11. COVID-19 panic made weight stigma worse.
Dr. Natasha Larmie started a weight loss journey during the pandemic after the data regarding COVID-19 and obesity was released, showing how health crises can trigger weight-focused panic even among medical professionals. The fear around COVID and weight created even more pressure to lose weight quickly, often through unhealthy methods.
The link between obesity and COVID-19 risk brought the urgency of tackling obesity to the forefront, but instead of improving healthcare for people in larger bodies, it mostly just increased stigma and weight-focused interventions that we already know don’t work long-term.
12. Medical schools need to completely change how they teach about weight.
Researchers are calling on medical schools in both the UK and globally to ensure effective and sustained weight-inclusive teaching is embedded in medical training and continuing professional development. The current medical education system is producing doctors who perpetuate harmful weight bias instead of learning how to provide effective care.
Effective methods include ethics seminars discussing patient experiences, virtual storytelling of case studies, and empathy-evoking activities, while simple video presentations and short lectures don’t create lasting change in attitudes. Medical education needs to fundamentally shift from seeing weight as a problem to solve to understanding it as one aspect of complex human health that doesn’t require fixing.
