Why Is It So Hard to Accept That Obesity Is Chronic?

This should not be so hard. But apparently it is very hard for people to accept, in their hearts, that the disease of obesity is actually chronic.

Yes, people will repeat the words that experts and thought leaders have fed them. “It is undeniable that obesity is a complex, chronic disease.” So says the International Obesity Collaborative – a group of experts and advocates from the top obesity organizations all over the world. This statement is one of five fundamental principles of obesity that the group agreed upon in 2024.

Surprise: Chronic Means Treatment Must Be Ongoing

And yet, when People magazine reports on the European Congress on Obesity, they can find an expert who seems to think people should figure out how to stop taking medicine for this chronic disease. But Susan Jebb discovered that when they do, the symptoms of obesity return. She told the magazine:

“Either people really have to accept this as a treatment for life, or we in science need to think really, really hard, how to support people when they stop the drug​.”

Can we really imagine expressing surprise if blood sugar goes up when a person stops taking their medicine for diabetes? Or high blood pressure? No.

Do we talk about “how to support people” to control their diabetes when they turn off their insulin pump? Nope.

But a substantial number of people seem to regard obesity treatment as a one-and-done operation. They call medicines for obesity “weight loss meds.” Do we “really have to accept this as a treatment for life?” That’s the question Jebb implicitly poses.

Every time we call these medicines “weight loss drugs,” we express reluctance to accept obesity as the chronic disease that it is. This is subtle. We may not realize it. But subtle messages can have the biggest effects. They sneak into our subconscious and feed implicit bias.

It’s about time to get past denial and move into acceptance on this point – in everything we say and do. Obesity really is a complex, chronic disease. Not a target for one-and-done treatment.

Click here for the reporting from People, here for more from The Guardian, and here for Jebb’s abstract.

Nighttime, Enigma, and Nostalgia, painting by Arshile Gorky / WikiArt

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May 17, 2025