Combined, we have published over 120 peer-reviewed articles related to health promotion, with specific expertise in physical activity, eating behaviors, disordered eating symptoms, weight-based discrimination, chronic disease risk, and program development and evaluation.

The following points are the evidence-based pillars for our decision to move away from weight-centric health promotion and towards approaches that are rooted in research, more inclusive, and less stigmatizing. We encourage you to use these materials, as helpful, to support shifts in your own health promotion perspectives.

BMI is not an indicator of health

there are better predictors of health

weight-based discrimination is harmful

weight loss interventions are ineffective

BMI has long been used as a measure of health, when there are actual measures of health like glucose, cholesterol, triglycerides, blood pressure, and the presence of psychiatric, chronic or infectious diseases.

A 2023 meta-analysis found no significant associations between higher BMI and higher mortality risk.

Adults with BMIs in the “overweight” and “obese” range have better disease outcomes compared to those with BMIs in the “healthy” or “normal” range.

Existing BMI cut-offs (e.g., 18.5-24.9 “healthy”, 25-29.9 “overweight”) do not consistently predict better or poorer health outcomes.

BMI is especially bad at predicting health among minoritized racial and ethnic groups.

When we use BMI categories as the indicator of health, we misclassify over 74 million US adults as cardiometabolically healthy or unhealthy.

The most comprehensive and rigorous of studies have identified several factors that are better predictors of disease, poor mental health, and mortality than body size. For example...

and this one offers a nice review of many of these points

There is now an abundance of data supporting what people in larger bodies, particularly women, have been saying for decades. Weight-based discrimination, including teasing, fat talk, and even good-intentioned comments, are harmful. Here are a handful of research highlights from us and others:

Nearly all of these studies control for differences in body size, meaning any corresponding health concerns are independent of body mass index.

• Language matters!
• Children, adults and parents described medical terms like “overweight” and “obesity” as the most stigmatizing ways to talk about body size, but we keep using them. Consider higher BMI or weight, or larger body instead. And, “fat” is only a bad word if used in a discriminatory way.
  

• Check out materials from others working in this space:
  
• Debbie Kaufman’s Body Liberation + Public Health Project
  
• Chevese Turner’s Body Equity Alliance
  

• See our white paper for a summary of the concerns and potential solutions associated with weight-based discrimination in the workplace