Empowered Health Course · Lesson 14 · 5:15
I want to give a shout-out to a mentor and colleague, Dr. Yoni Freedhoff, a bariatric and obesity medicine specialist in Ontario and one of Canada's leaders in advocating for better access and a healthier environment for people living with obesity. He and Dr. Arya Sharma championed the concept of "best weight," which I'll talk about. I'll read a quote from Dr. Freedhoff: "Live the healthiest life you can enjoy, not the healthiest life you can tolerate."
This is about lifestyle. If we can dial in a healthy way of eating, moving, and sleeping — in a way that's enjoyable and sustainable — weight will come down and then plateau. That plateau is not a failure. It's landing at your best weight. Best weight is often a compromise between what nature gives and what you want. Our expectation might be a 20–30% loss, but best weight may be a 5–10% loss.
That plateau is a risky time. If our goal was a number on the scale — we lost 15 pounds but wanted to lose 45 — that 15 can feel like failure. But best weight is really a time for celebration, for patting yourself on the back for the effort you've put in. Maintenance is the most challenging part of lifestyle change, and the effort needed to lose weight is the same effort needed to maintain it. People often perceive best weight as failure simply because no one shared this information with them.
So we should throw the "goal weight" out the window, because we can't consciously control our body weight long-term. It's driven by the deep brain and the body's biology. As we lose weight, the brain defends against it: for years afterward, hormones change to increase hunger and decrease fullness, and metabolic rate drops to conserve energy and bring weight back up.
Best weight is simply the acknowledgment that you're going to land somewhere — and it's about finding a way of living you genuinely enjoy. What's life for, if not to enjoy it? Not to spend every moment suppressing hunger, thinking about food, or exercising beyond what's enjoyable. We can take best weight and, if needed, augment it with medication to bring weight down further when we're trying to resolve other symptoms of obesity. So again: live the healthiest life you can enjoy, not the healthiest life you can tolerate.
This transcript has been lightly edited from the video for readability. For the complete experience, please watch the video above.