Obesity Canada

👉 If obesity care is a core part of your practice, this is for you. You’ve built experience. You’re committed to respectful, evidence-informed obesity care. You want that commitment to be understood — by patients, peers, and organizations. The Certified Bariatric Educator (CBE®) exam offers a formal way to demonstrate knowledge aligned with the Canadian Adult and Pediatric Obesity Clinical Practice Guidelines. Across Canada, nearly 400 healthcare professionals have chosen the CBE® exam to showcase their expertise in obesity care. Here’s what you need to know 👇 ✍️ The next CBE® exam is on November 28, 2026 📅 Apply by: November 2, 2025 👉 Learn more + apply today → https://utm.guru/urz1k

Obesity research is stronger when it is shaped by people with lived experience. Their perspectives help research focus on real questions, real barriers, and the real changes that could make the greatest difference. Obesity Canada participated in the James Lind Alliance Priority Setting Partnership, a community-driven project that brought together people living with obesity, caregivers, and healthcare professionals to identify Canada’s top unanswered questions in adult obesity care. Mary Forhan shares why this process and project was important, and why lived experience needs to be included early, meaningfully, and thoughtfully in obesity research. 📕 Read more about the JLA project and Canada’s obesity research priorities: https://bit.ly/4pn1OTq 🤝 If your research could benefit from collaboration with people living with obesity, learn how to partner with Obesity Canada: https://bit.ly/3T2WLMv

Lived experience is not a separate part of Obesity Canada’s work. It is embedded in how we approach research, education, advocacy, public awareness, and system change. Science helps us understand obesity as a chronic disease. Lived experience helps us understand how stigma, access barriers, care experiences, and public attitudes affect people’s lives. Both are needed. Across our work, lived experience experts help shape the questions we ask, the stories we tell, the resources we create, and the changes we advocate for. Their leadership helps ensure our work reflects the realities of people affected by obesity, not the assumptions that have made about them. We're grateful to the lived experience experts in Canada and around the world who continue to share their perspectives, challenge outdated thinking, and help move toward better understanding, better care, and less stigma for people living with obesity.

🔎 What should obesity research answer next? Obesity Canada participated in the James Lind Alliance Priority Setting Partnership to help identify Canada’s top unanswered questions in adult obesity care. The process brought together people living with obesity, caregivers, and healthcare professionals to identify what is still missing from research, care, and support. Those questions were reviewed against existing evidence and narrowed into a top 10 list, grouped into five themes: Mental health and stigma Access and equity Measurement and outcomes Treatment and personalization Training and support for healthcare professionals For researchers, funders, healthcare professionals, policymakers, and community partners, these priorities offer a clearer starting point for research that reflects real experiences and real gaps in obesity care and knowledge. 🔗 Read more about the JLA project and Canada’s obesity research priorities: https://bit.ly/4pn1OTq

Confidence in providing obesity care comes from knowledge, tools, and practice. Calibre brings all three. Calibre is an online, accredited course that helps healthcare professionals build confidence with communication skills, practical strategies, and evidence-based tools you can immediately use in practice. Grounded in Canada’s clinical practice guidelines, you’ll learn: - Determinants & pathophysiology of obesity - Effective communication strategies for obesity care - How to identify and address bias in clinical and organizational settings - Evidence-based psychological, pharmacological, and surgical treatments through the latest guidelines & research - How to use collaborative goal-setting and adaptive, patient-centered care strategies You’ll learn from a mix of self-paced content, interactive, case-based learnings, and live sessions led by some of Canada’s top obesity experts. Register today: https://utm.guru/uqKq5 🗓️ The next cohort starts September 3 and runs through October 7. Accreditation details in the comment below ⤵️

🎤 We asked obesity experts: Why should weight bias and stigma be taken more seriously? Weight bias is often brushed off as a comment, an opinion, or something people should simply ignore. But for people living with obesity, stigma can shape how they are seen, spoken to, treated, and supported. Obesity is a chronic disease, yet it is still widely misunderstood. When people living with obesity face blame, shame, or assumptions about their health, habits, or body size, it can affect their well-being and create barriers to respectful, evidence-based care. Recognizing weight bias is one part of changing how obesity is understood in healthcare, workplaces, media, public spaces, and everyday conversations. 🔗 Learn more about how to recognize and reduce weight bias and stigma: https://bit.ly/3Tjrp4d Thank you to Angela S. Alberga, Taniya Nagpal, Patty Nece, and Dr. Yoohyun Kim, MD for sharing their perspectives for this video.

Becoming a Certified Bariatric Educator means having your knowledge and experience in obesity care formally recognized. If your professional role includes providing obesity care or education, the CBE® designation may be a meaningful next step. Applications for the next CBE® exam open July 31, so now is the time to check your eligibility, gather your documents, mark the key dates, and start preparing. Eligibility requirements include completion of Obesity Canada’s Introduction to Adult Obesity course, a valid licence in good standing with a Canadian regulatory body, and 700+ hours of obesity care experience. 🔗 Learn more and get ready to apply: https://utm.guru/uryzI

Obesity treatments are changing the questions healthcare professionals need to ask about nutrition. Alongside calorie intake, are patients getting enough protein, fibre, fluids and overall nourishment to support their health? Michelle Cardel, PhD, MS, RD, FTOS explores how a greater focus on nutritional adequacy can shape more practical, individualized nutrition support. 🎧 Listen to the full episode "How GLP-1s are Changing Nutrition Conversations": 🟢 Spotify: https://utm.guru/urB4T 🟣 Apple Podcasts: https://utm.guru/urB58 🔴 YouTube: https://utm.guru/urB6e

Obesity care across the lifespan starts with understanding obesity as a chronic, multifactorial disease. It also requires us to examine the assumptions and biases that can shape conversations about weight, care, and treatment. In adulthood, obesity may occur on its own or alongside other chronic diseases and complications. Stress, sleep, trauma, mental health, medications, biology, and many other factors can all influence how obesity presents and how it should be managed. That is why effective obesity care must be individualized, sustainable, and grounded in respect. Obesity Canada’s online education courses are designed to help healthcare professionals deepen their understanding of obesity science, reduce weight bias, and support evidence-based care. 🔎 Explore our courses and start learning today for free: https://bit.ly/43pg8BP

The real work of a global congress does not only happen at the podium. It happens in the hallway conversation after a session. In the introduction that becomes a future collaboration. In the shared nod when someone names a challenge you recognize from home. In the reminder that our understanding of obesity is still evolving, and people around the world are working to turn that progress into better care. Last week in Mexico City, our team was grateful to spend time at the International Congress on Obesity, hosted by the World Obesity Federation. We met with colleagues from across the global obesity community, including researchers, healthcare professionals, advocates, partner organizations, and people working to centre lived experience in obesity research, care, and advocacy. We left with new ideas, stronger connections, and a clearer sense of what shared work can make possible. Thank you to everyone who made the week so meaningful. #ICO2026