A team of researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine found that obese people are more likely to trust weight-related guidance from physicians who are overweight compared to those who are of normal weight.

Preventive Medicine

our results suggest that overweight and obese patients trust their primary care physicians, regardless of their body weight.”

overweight patients more strongly “trusted diet advice from overweight primary care physiciansBMI



Patients who went to obese physicians for guidance were more likely to feel judged because of their weight













“While weight-related stigma has been documented among health professionals for decades, as well as lower physician respect towards patients with a higher BMI, our finding that weight-related stigma increases with physician BMI was quite surprising.”

obesitypatients with higher levels of trust in their regular physicians are more likely than patients with less trust to have better care.

Journal of Academic MedicineDoctors generally have an anti-fat bias

Do Doctors Treat Fat Patients Differently?