Stuart Phillips, Ph.D. Facebook ad: “Home - Department of Kinesiology - Faculty of Science…”

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Obesity/Fat Shaming and now GLP-1 Shaming: The Last Socially Acceptable Forms of Bigotry? What became clear very quickly is that we’re carrying two stigmas at once. The stigma of obesity, and now the stigma of treating obesity. That moralization has consequences. People with obesity are blamed for having the disease and then judged again if they seek treatment. Lose weight “the wrong way” and it’s called cheating. Use a medication, and the response is often “try harder,” as if that hasn’t already been attempted hundreds of times. The bar keeps moving, and the judgment never stops. We have no trouble calling other chronic conditions diseases. We don’t blame people for “failing” their way into hypertension and blocked coronary arteries (heart disease) or dyslipidemia. Yet when it comes to obesity, we still moralize. GLP-1 therapies highlight this contradiction. Used appropriately, they treat the underlying physiology of obesity in the same way metformin/SGLT2 treat diabetes or statins treat atherosclerosis. But instead of seeing treatment, many see weakness, vanity, or a 'shortcut.' That reaction says far more about the person and our cultural discomfort with obesity than it does about the drug. NONE of this means GLP-1s are for everyone. Indications matter. Oversight matters. Nutrition, resistance training, and long-term thinking matter. But dismissing treatment because “people should just try harder” ignores decades of evidence and the lived reality of those affected. The phrase walk a mile in their shoes comes to mind. If we’re serious about health, we have to drop the moral hierarchy. Obesity deserves the same clinical seriousness, compassion, and evidence-based care as does ANY other chronic disease. And people who choose treatment deserve support, not suspicion.

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kinesiology.mcmaster.ca

Home - Department of Kinesiology - Faculty of Science - McMaster University

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