“People who come off slimming jabs regain weight four times faster than dieters.” The year is young, but already we have this contender for the dumbest headline of the year about obesity.

It is helpful only as a reminder of how pervasive the implicit bias about obesity and its treatment is.

Slimming Jabs?

The headline comes from the BBC. In the UK, it seems that slimming jabs is the favorite disparaging label to apply to advanced obesity medicines, which until now have only been available by injection. Oddly enough, British journalists don’t call insulin a diabetic jab. Nor are they quite so quick to call immunotherapy a cancer jab.

But still it seems A-OK to trivialize a therapy that prevents deaths from heart disease and suggest that it’s nothing more than a jab for the cosmetic purpose of “slimming.”

Subtle disparagement is the most effective kind.

Dieters Do Better?

The most galling part of this headline is the implicit suggestion that people who are seeking effective treatment for obesity would be better off it they just went on a perpetual diet. What’s a person to think when they hear they’ll gain weight four times faster after taking a slimming jab?

This is an absurdly ignorant suggestion for a health journalist to make. And it obscures the real point of the journal article that spurred this BBC report. The study actually offers data supporting the need for a long-term approach to treating obesity.

Of course people who only diet to lose weight won’t regain weight as fast as people who stop taking a highly effective obesity medicine. They don’t have that much weight to regain because diets alone are not very effective. Duh.

Ignorance and Bias About Obesity

Naveed Sattar, an expert who knows a thing or two about obesity, tried to tell the BBC that the real need is for long-term care in this chronic disease. He said:

“Importantly, continued use of these medicines over three to four years enables people to maintain significantly lower weight than they would otherwise – a benefit not typically seen with lifestyle-induced weight loss, where many regain weight over time.”

Alas, they did not want to hear it. Slimming jabs will make you fatter is the story line that gets more clicks. And plenty of people who are invested in the failed concept of telling people to eat less and move more to overcome obesity are happy to offer their “expert” opinion. They are ready to tell anyone who will listen that diet and exercise will do the trick. For its part the BMJ reinforced that bias with an editorial saying that GLP-1s “should not be relied on” for treating obesity.

Apparently, ineffective treatment for obesity is good enough in the eyes of way too many people.

Dealing Seriously with a Disease

But here’s a little food for thought. We do not tell people living with diabetes not to rely on insulin or other drugs that can keep them healthy. Credible medical experts do not say “don’t get started on drugs to control your blood sugar because they won’t keep working when you stop taking them.” That would be absurd.

It is equally absurd to tell people the same thing about treatment for obesity.

Click here for the study, here for the BMJ editorial, and here for the absurd reporting from the BBC.

Absurd Face, illustration by Fazoffic via Wikimedia Commons