What does better obesity care look like when clinicians truly listen to the people receiving it?

Dr. Matthea Rentea and Dr. Komal Patil-Sisodia join Mike for a conversation about lived experience, patient-centered obesity care, and the role peer support can play in helping people feel understood, supported, and more engaged in their care.

This conversation was originally planned as an American Diabetes Association/Obesity Association webinar for clinicians. After concerns surrounding the ADA and the current scientific boycott, the conversation moved outside of the organization and onto our podcasts. We spend the opening minutes explaining why.

But the larger conversation is the one we originally came together to have: how clinicians can provide better obesity care by listening to patients, understanding their experiences, and giving patients a meaningful role in shaping care, education, and health systems.

We talk about why patient stories matter, how lived experience can reveal things clinical data alone cannot, and what happens when people feel dismissed, blamed, or unheard in healthcare.

We also explore peer support in its many forms, from physician-led group visits and structured programs to informal online communities where people living with obesity share experiences, questions, successes, and frustrations. And while this conversation was designed with clinicians in mind, we believe patients should be at the table for it too.

In this episode:

• Why listening to patients can improve obesity care
• What lived experience adds to clinical expertise
• How weight stigma and dismissal can damage trust
• Why patient stories matter in medical education and care delivery
• What patients can learn from other patients
• The role of physician-led group visits and structured peer support
• The benefits and limitations of online patient communities
• How patients can help shape programs, education, and healthcare systems
• Why one patient’s experience should never be treated as everyone’s experience
• What meaningful patient involvement can look like in practice

This episode is for clinicians, patients, advocates, and anyone interested in building obesity care grounded in both science and the experiences of people living with the disease.

Hear more from our guests

Follow Dr. Matthea Rentea on The Obesity Guide with Matthea Rentea MD, where she discusses obesity treatment, chronic weight management, GLP-1 medications, and the realities of living with obesity.

Apple Podcasts: Follow The Obesity Guide on Apple Podcasts
Spotify: Follow The Obesity Guide on Spotify

Follow Dr. Komal Patil-Sisodia on Clearly Hormonal, where she brings an endocrinologist’s perspective to hormonal and metabolic health, including menopause, PMOS, obesity, diabetes, and related care.

Apple Podcasts: Follow Clearly Hormonal on Apple Podcasts
Spotify: Follow Clearly Hormonal on Spotify

And if you found this conversation useful, follow Weight & Measure with Mike and Zach wherever you listen. Please consider leaving a rating or review, too. It helps more people find evidence-based conversations about obesity care.

More science. Less stigma.

Who gets to decide what a healthy body looks like?

Is it the patient? Their clinician? Their family? Their community? And what happens when culture, identity, health, and personal goals don't all point toward the same answer?

With Zach away recovering from surgery, Deb Cooperman joins Mike as guest co-host for a conversation with Michelle Tedder, nurse educator and patient advocate, and Dr. Jovonni Spinner, public health researcher and health equity strategist.

This episode explores obesity through the experiences of Black women while asking broader questions about health, identity, culture, access, and patient-centered care.

Michelle and Jovonni discuss patient autonomy and shared decision-making, including what happens when a patient's goals don't align with a clinician's recommendations or when family and cultural expectations influence treatment decisions.

They also challenge the idea that accepting or loving your body means you can't choose to treat obesity.

Body acceptance and obesity treatment can coexist.

Someone can value their body, reject shame and stigma, and still pursue treatment to improve metabolic health, mobility, strength, or quality of life.

The conversation explores how social networks, cultural identity, environment, chronic stress, access to resources, and the meaning food carries within families and communities can influence health decisions.

It also examines disparities in obesity care. Insurance coverage, geography, affordability, access to clinicians trained in obesity care, representation in research, and assumptions made inside the exam room can all influence whether someone receives treatment.

As Jovonni explains, health equity doesn't mean treating everyone the same. It means meeting people where they are and giving them what they need to have an opportunity to achieve their healthiest life.

The group also challenges the association between obesity and laziness, discipline, effort, appearance, or personal worth.

Obesity is a chronic disease, and the number on the scale doesn't tell the entire story.

So what should success look like?

Better blood pressure or blood sugar. Improved cholesterol. Walking farther without pain. Getting stronger. Increasing muscle. Lifting your suitcase into an overhead bin. Running to catch a connecting flight. Maintaining the independence to carry your groceries upstairs at 75.

Those outcomes may tell us far more about someone's health than a number on a scale.

And while this conversation centers the experiences of Black women, its lessons extend beyond any one community.

You don't have to share someone's lived experience to believe it, learn from it, or advocate for better care.

Black women aren't a monolith. Neither are people living with obesity.

Better care starts by replacing assumptions with curiosity, listening to what matters to the person in front of us, and recognizing that health may look different from one person to the next.

Featuring:

Mike Donnelly-Boylen | Co-host, Weight & Measure
Deb Cooperman | Guest Co-host & Obesity Advocate
Michelle Tedder | Nurse Educator, Patient Advocate & Host of Dear Healthcare Provider
Dr. Jovonni Spinner | Public Health Researcher & Health Equity Strategist

More Science. Less Stigma.

#Obesity #ObesityMedicine #HealthEquity #WeightStigma #BlackWomensHealth #PatientAdvocacy #WeightAndMeasure

Before they became podcast hosts, patient advocates, and leaders in obesity care, Mike Donnelly-Boylen and Zachary Niemiec were simply two people living with obesity.

In this deeply personal episode of Weight & Measure, the microphones turn toward the hosts themselves as Deb Cooperman interviews Mike and Zach about the experiences that shaped their lives and ultimately inspired their work in obesity advocacy.

Together, they discuss growing up with obesity, the stigma they experienced, the misconceptions people had about them, and the emotional realities that often remain invisible. They also reflect on bariatric surgery, GLP-1 medications, long term weight management, healthcare experiences, and how their understanding of obesity evolved from self blame to recognizing it as the chronic disease it is.

This conversation is not about quick fixes or dramatic before and after stories. It is about resilience, science, hope, and what it truly means to live with obesity.

Welcome, Deb!

We're excited to welcome Deb Cooperman behind the microphone as our guest host for this special conversation. If you enjoy her thoughtful interview style, you'll be hearing more from Deb in September as she joins Mike to help host Weight & Measure while Zach takes a brief break to recover from surgery. We're incredibly grateful to have Deb as part of the team and can't wait for you to get to know her.

In this episode:

• Growing up living with obesity

• The emotional impact of weight stigma and bias

• Bariatric surgery and life after metabolic surgery

• GLP-1 medications and comprehensive obesity treatment

• Why obesity is a chronic disease, not a personal failure

• The misconceptions people make about individuals living with obesity

• What surprised Mike and Zach after significant weight loss

• Advice they would give to their younger selves

• Hope for the future of obesity medicine and patient advocacy

Whether you're living with obesity, considering bariatric surgery, taking a GLP-1 medication, supporting a loved one, or working in healthcare, this episode offers an honest look at the lived experience behind the headlines.

If this conversation resonates with you, please subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode to help reduce stigma and advance understanding of obesity as a chronic disease.

Resources

Practitioners can download the free Non-Surgical Weight Loss & Obesity Management Guide here:
https://procarenow.com/pages/non-surgical-weight-loss-obesity-management-program

Follow Weight & Measure

🎧 Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/weight-measure/id1886848263

🎧 Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/45vJYXZC0ciTNpfwoc9CVI

Obesity, obesity medicine, obesity podcast, GLP-1, GLP-1 medications, weight loss, bariatric surgery, metabolic surgery, obesity treatment, weight stigma, weight bias, obesity advocacy, chronic disease, patient advocacy, obesity care,Health,Wellness, Mike Donnelly-Boylen, Zach Niemiec, Weight & Measure.