Why Your Doctor Doesn't Need to Weigh You with Dr. Mara Gordon
Brace yourselves:
This is not your average chat about body weight, BMI, and health. Let’s be real—when’s the last time you heard a doctor say maybe we should take the focus off weight altogether? That’s exactly what Dr. Mara Gordon brings to the table: an evidence-backed, and frankly, much-needed perspective on why obsessing over numbers might actually be making things worse.
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We’re cutting through the jargon and getting real about why BMI and weight-centric health advice might be doing more harm than good. Dr. Gordon shares her experiences, both personal and professional, that led her to ditch the "lose weight" script and actually listen to her patients. Spoiler: turns out, telling someone in a larger body to “just lose weight” is about as helpful as reminding them to drink water.
In this episode, I’m joined by Dr. Mara Gordon, a family physician and writer based in Philadelphia. She has published works in outlets like NPR, The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Philadelphia Inquirer, STAT News, and others. She also writes a newsletter called Chief Complaint, where she shares reflections on medicine, parenting, gender, and fatphobia.
Before medical school, she worked in public health in Tanzania and Malawi, then returned home to attend the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, where she also completed her residency in Family Medicine and Community Health. From 2018 to 2019, she served as the Health & Media Fellow at National Public Radio and Georgetown University School of Medicine.
Today, Dr. Mara Gordon is part of the faculty at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University in Camden, NJ, where she cares for patients of all ages as a primary care physician and teaches medical students.
In this episode, we’re talking about:
The importance of weight-neutral healthcare.
Why weight-inclusive practices are rare but essential to avoid harm caused by weight stigma in traditional medical settings.
How Dr. Gordon’s personal experiences with ineffective weight-focused care led her to prioritize health overweight in her practice.
How to shift the health focus from weight to behavior (like balanced nutrition and physical activity), which often leads to better outcomes.
The limitations of BMI as a health measure and the recent guidance from the AMA to move away from it.
How health is complex, and body size alone doesn’t determine conditions like diabetes or heart disease.
Addressing systemic fatphobia in healthcare.
Ethics and concerns around GLP-1 medications (e.g., Ozempic).
How to balance patient autonomy with medical responsibility.
So, if you’re tired of hearing the same old lecture on weight and health, or if you’ve ever felt judged in a doctor’s office, tune in. This conversation could change the way you think about your own body—and the advice you might get from the medical world.
Tweetable Quotes
"It's pretty rare to find a doctor who practices from a weight-inclusive perspective." - Rachelle Heinemann
"Obesity stigma is extremely common in healthcare settings. People with larger bodies like consistently in research study after research study say, that healthcare settings are some of the most stigmatizing places that they go." - Dr. Mara Gordon
“Even the American Medical Association has said that clinicians shouldn't be using BMI to really be making decisions about their individual patients.” - Dr. Mara Gordon
"My approach as a size-inclusive doctor is basically like I let the patient initiate that conversation." - Dr. Mara Gordon
"Food is so important. It's so cultural. It's a way that we share community, a way that we show respect to people, and it really can change the way that people sort of experience food." - Dr. Mara Gordon
Resources
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Related Episodes
Episode 133. GLP with Dr. Kim Dennis
Episode 130. So You Think Processed Foods Caused Obesity and the Answer is Weight Loss
Episode 122. Ozempic, Wegovy, & Mounjaro with Laura Cipullo
Episode 117. Weight Loss, Yay or Nay?
Episode 116. Bariatric Surgery and Eating Disorders with Dr. Marianne Miller
Episode 77. How to Accept Your Body
Episode 76. The Basics of Health at Every Size
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Hey there! I’m Rachelle, the host of the Understanding Disordered Eating Podcast. As a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, I work with clients to make sense of life’s messy emotional experiences.
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