The End of an Era?

Published April 1, 2026: Yoni Freedhoff (a Canadian doctor who treats obesity) has written an article declaring that obesity drugs have solved the obesity crisis, and that fat acceptance and diet promoters are passé. To be clear, the article is Freedhoff exulting the demise of fat acceptance and diet promoters.

Certainly, those groups of people (amoung others) are terrified of the new obesity drugs, the glucagon-like peptide-1 or GLP-1s. Last year when I listened to a series of vegan doctors on weight loss, I clocked how scared they seemed to be of them (To be fair, Freedhoff would probably lump them in with diet promoters). And the drugs definitely put the lie to the fat acceptance shibboleth that weight loss is impossible.

I’ve also heard the various arguments he lists in his article provided by vegan doctors as well as other doctors who prescribe meat-based diets. Fat acceptance waxes hysterical about the drugs, asserting amongst other things that more people have died on GLP-1s than Phen-fen when it was pulled from the market.

One thing he notes is that diet researchers will also fade, who cares which diets are best at losing weight when most people are on the drugs and can lose weight eating anything. I’m not so sure about that. Already the ultra-processing of foods or the hyper-palatabilty of foods is a topic. Food companies are already looking for foods that will counter act the GLP-1s. Because that’s what capitalism does...

Freedhoff notes that weight stigma will not go away. Though it made change in the face of drugs. The new stigma may revolve around people who can’t access the drugs, but that’s speculation. No one knows what the next stigma will be based upon.

Maybe Freedhoff is onto something? Here is someone was part of fat acceptance and now actively argues against it. I think she’s a TikTokker, and the only way I heard about it is through the YouTube Channel Obese to Beast. She isn’t the only creator I”ve come across arguing (from a fat or former fat) person’s persoective that boy positivity or fat acceptance as proacticed is ridiculous.

Losing weight doesn’t mean hating your body, it means loving your body enough to change. Even Tess Holliday (who was recently refused insurance covereage due to her size (actuarial tables don’t care about your feelings…)) is losing weight. At her size, she can lose a lot of weight quickly… even if she only eats a normal diet.