Weight Discrimination in Public Health

Wednesday 10 December 2025

A couple of weeks out from Christmas 2025, we delivered a session to public health practitioners in the North East Public Health Registrars Network.

What a session! We looked at how public health messaging can be stigmatising and counter-intuitive, and imagined together what alternative, non-weight centric approaches to public health might look like. One of the key questions of the day was “If not weight, then what?” In other words, if public health moves away from weight as a measure of health and weight loss as a goal, then what replaces weight as that measure?

It’s a tough question, particularly because weight is so deeply engrained as a measurement tool to provide both ‘snapshot’ and longitudinal data. But there are alternatives including waist-to-height-ratio, metabolic health, strength, blood pressure and self-reported outcomes. We don’t have all the answers to the “…then what?” question but our workshops can provide a supportive safe to discuss what might be possible.