Sky High BMI? Helping Your Patients Lose Weight

By Barbara Berkeley, MD

About 20 years ago, after serving as director of a hospital-based weight loss clinic, I discovered that I was that rare bird, a doctor who was fascinated by obesity. Shortly afterwards, I made the jump from general internist to weight loss specialist. Some would say that this was the equivalent of leaping off a career cliff. My colleagues and friends simply couldn’t understand why I would “give up medicine”. And indeed, a practice devoted to weight management is not quite medicine. It is also not quite psychiatry, not quite nutritional counseling, not quite personal coaching and not quite guru-ism. It is a fascinating combination of each of these things. Despite the professional challenges posed by such a misunderstood field, I feel that I’ve been privileged to spend many years practicing---yes--- medicine at the very center of what ails us in modern America.

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