Show Notes
If health is the goal, how do we know when to stop losing weight? And how do we decide what’s enough in a society that keeps rewarding us for being smaller?
A Matter of Fat is a podcast for anyone who has no idea what they think about weight, bodies and the rapidly changing conversation around them.
Hosted by journalist Rose Stokes, who brings 30 years of lived experience with weight and obesity, and Dr Giles Yeo, a University of Cambridge scientist who has spent three decades studying why people are small, medium or large in our food environment, this podcast brings together lived experience and science without pretending to have all the answers.
In episode seven, the final episode of the first series, Rose and Giles explore life after willpower: what happens when losing weight becomes possible, and how we decide when to stop. They discuss weight-loss plateaus, coming off GLP-1 medication and the difference between reaching a healthier place and chasing a number that never feels low enough.
We cover: • Why weight loss on GLP-1 medication eventually plateaus • What happens to appetite and weight when treatment stops • The “set point” hypothesis and why our bodies defend their weight • How genetics influence body shape and where we carry fat • Where fat actually goes when we lose it • Why healthier habits and the biology of appetite are different pieces of the puzzle • How weight stigma can shape relationships, careers and the pressure to become smaller • Whether weight-loss drugs are challenging the willpower narrative or creating new expectations • The difference between stopping weight loss and stopping medication • Why treatment may be long term for some people • What future pills and new treatments could mean for cost, access and choice • Why medication cannot replace changes to our food environment • Rose’s personal goals, hopes for her family and reasons for moving away from a target weight • Giles’s own experience of weight loss and his thoughts on what comes next • What Rose and Giles have learned from each other, including the exhausting pressure to prove you’re a “good” fat person • Plus, Rose reflects on taking Mounjaro, the cost of treatment and why the freedom to think about something other than food matters more to her than the number on the scales
Transparency: Professor Giles Yeo consults and speaks for Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly and Amgen, and has received research grant funding from Novo Nordisk and Amgen. He is joining Amgen’s cardiometabolic scientific advisory board and also consults for Voy. Industry funds most obesity research, and these relationships are typical for senior researchers in the field.
Rose Stokes has taken GLP-1 medication and writes about weight and the pharmaceutical industry as a freelance journalist.
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FIND US Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amatteroffatpod/ Rose Stokes: https://www.instagram.com/rosestokes/ Giles Yeo: https://www.instagram.com/gilesyeo/ Questions, thoughts, constructive criticism or a story you want to share? Email us at [email protected] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
More from A Matter of Fat
If you can now change your body, do you still have to love it? And can wanting to lose weight coexist with body acceptance?
Big Food helped create the obesity crisis. Should the same industry be allowed to profit from the solution?
Who gets to be healthy when nutritious food, time, exercise and weight-loss medication all cost money?
Episode 3: GLP-1 medications might quieten food noise, but has the noise around weight-loss jabs become impossible to escape?
What happens after the dramatic “after” photo? A Matter of Fat is a podcast for anyone who has no idea what they think about weight, bodies and the rapidly changing conversation around them.