Why are There Fat Doctors?

The energy balance model of weight management is wrong

Many people adhere, explicitly or implicitly, to the Energy Balance Model of weight management. If you are overweight, and go to visit your doctor, s/he will likely tell you to try to lose some weight — and your doctor will likely advise you to “eat less and move more.” This advice is based on the EBM of weight management, whether your doctor knows it or not.

It sounds logical and fits with the belief that overweight people became overweight by eating too much and/or not moving around enough — they are gluttons and/or sloths.

But for this to hold true — that overweight people are gluttons and/or sloths — it would mean that gluttony and sloth took a sharp increase in societies around the world over the past 60 years. For this to be true, it would mean that for some reason, people gave up on willpower. Even doctors! As a former fat person myself, if losing weight is as easy as eating less and/or moving more, there wouldn’t be any fat people.

Prominent British cardiologist, Dr. Aseem Malhotra, in a pre-Brexit presentation to the EU, pointed out that 50% of NHS workers are overweight. Closer to home, Dr…