What is Weight-Neutral Medical Care

At Neighborhood Naturopathic and Primary Care, we believe your health is about much more than a number on the scale.

Each of our providers take a weight-neutral and weight-inclusive, whole-person approach to care, meaning we focus on understanding what is happening in your body and supporting your health rather than using weight or BMI as the primary measure of health or treatment success. Many of our providers are also aligned with the principles of Health at Every Size (HAES).

What does weight-neutral care look like in our clinic?

We strive to:

Provide respectful, individualized care to people of all body sizes.
Avoid making assumptions about your health, nutrition, or activity based on your weight.
Investigate symptoms rather than automatically attributing them to body size.
Focus on meaningful measures of health—including symptoms, blood sugar and metabolic markers, cardiovascular health, hormones, digestion, sleep, energy, strength, and quality of life.
Recommend nutrition and movement for the ways they support your health, not simply because they may change your weight.
Consider the potential effects of dieting, weight cycling, disordered eating, and weight stigma.
Include you in decisions about your care and respect your individual goals and preferences.

We do not routinely weigh patients, and having your weight taken is always optional. If your provider needs a weight for a specific clinical reason but you prefer not to know the number, we can also offer a blind weight, where the measurement is recorded without being shared with you. BMI may occasionally be used for insurance or coding purposes, but we do not use it as a primary measure of your health.

There are times when weight itself can provide important clinical information—for example, monitoring someone who is at a medically low weight, supporting an identified weight-gain goal, or investigating sudden or unexplained changes in weight that could indicate an underlying health concern.

If you have a history of disordered eating or an eating disorder, we take that history into consideration before making recommendations around nutrition, medications, or other aspects of your care. Because active eating disorders require specialized care, our providers do not manage active eating disorders and will recommend appropriate specialized support when needed.

Does weight-neutral mean weight doesn't matter?

No. Weight and body composition can sometimes provide useful clinical information, but they are only one piece of a much larger picture.

BMI in particular has significant limitations when used to assess an individual's health. The American Medical Association recommends that BMI be interpreted alongside other measures of health and individual risk.

If you have concerns such as insulin resistance, blood sugar dysregulation, cardiovascular risk factors, PCOS, fatty liver, or other metabolic conditions, we take them seriously. Rather than assuming weight loss itself is the treatment, we work to understand and address the underlying factors contributing to your health.

What if I want to discuss my weight?

You can.

Weight-neutral care doesn't make weight a forbidden topic. If changes in your weight or body composition are concerning to you, we can explore potential contributors and discuss your goals and options. We'll start by understanding why that goal is important to you and what you ultimately hope to improve—whether that's mobility, pain, cardiovascular or metabolic health, or something else. Whenever possible, we'll focus care and progress on those underlying goals rather than a specific number on the scale.

We also offer medical weight management, including GLP-1 medications, when safe, appropriate, and aligned with an individual's health needs and goals.

Likewise, if you don't want weight to be a focus of your care, we respect that too.

Ultimately, our goal is to help you build a healthier relationship with your body while improving the measures of health that matter to you.

Your body is not simply a number—and neither is your health.