Three Principles for Practicing Person-Centered Obesity Care

Zeb I. Saeed, MD, a member of the steering committee for the Endocrine Society’s Early Career Special Interest Group (SIG), shares with clinicians three patient-centric principles to treating overweight and obesity.

Zeb I. Saeed, MD As endocrinologists, we enter clinical practice having been well trained in the physiology and pharmacological management of obesity, what the BMI cutoffs are, and what the trial data show.

However, we are far less prepared for the human experience of managing obesity in patients, many of whom have spent decades being blamed for their body size (and worse, even blaming themselves) and how to help them reframe that story. Over my last five years of practicing weight management, one thing has become increasingly clear to me: How we frame obesity care matters just as much as what medications we prescribe.

The words we choose, the goals we emphasize, and the assumptions we carry going into the patient’s room shape their engagement, trust, and long-term success.