#65 - Navigating Weight Stigma at the Doctor's Office with Ragen Chastain

This week, we’re talking to Ragen Chastain, a speaker, writer, researcher, Board Certified Patient Advocate, multi-certified health and fitness professional, and thought leader in weight science, weight stigma, health, and healthcare. Utilizing her background in research methods and statistics, Ragen has brought her signature mix of humor and hard facts to healthcare, corporate, conference, and college audiences from Kaiser Permanente and the Diabetes Education Specialists National Conference, to Amazon and Google, to Dartmouth, Cal Tech and canfitpro. Author of the Weight and Healthcare newsletter, the book Fat: The Owner's Manual, co-author of HAES Health Sheets, and editor of the anthology The Politics of Size, Ragen is frequently featured as an expert in print, radio, television, and documentary film. In her free time, Ragen is a national dance champion, triathlete, and marathoner who holds the Guinness World Record for Heaviest Woman to Complete a Marathon. Ragen lives in LA with her fiancée Julianne and their adorable dog.

We had an amazing conversation with Ragen about...

• Why doctors are so deeply entrenched in the weight-centric paradigm
• How medical weight stigma causes harm
• The role of privilege & power dynamics in navigating medical situations
• The unethical marketing of weight loss surgery & weight loss drugs
• And practical ways to navigate specific medical situations, such as: weigh-ins (no, they're not required by insurance!), blood pressure readings, recommendations for weight loss, recommendations for weight loss drugs or weight loss surgery, and BMI-based denials.

You can learn more from Ragen by subscribing to the Weight & Healthcare Newsletter, or by checking out her library of online workshops (including videos of past workshops, and new ones hosted monthly).

Or you can connect with Ragen via social media on Instagram!

Referenced in this episode:
Fat Friendly Health Professionals List
Weight Neutral Providers Lead List

Stay in touch with the pod on IG @satisfactionfactorpod!

And here's where you can continue to find us:
Sadie Simpson: www.sadiesimpson.com or IG @sadiemsimpson
Naomi Katz: www.happyshapes.co or IG @happyshapesnaomi