E66.01 and Our Culture of Shame

This perspective article critiques the stigmatizing language embedded in the ICD10 code for obesity (E66.01: "morbid obesity due to excess calories"), which perpetuates harmful misconceptions that obesity results solely from poor lifestyle choices. The author reflects on a patient’s experience with weight regain after structured interventions, highlighting how clinical notes and societal messaging fuel shame by oversimplifying obesity as a failure of willpower. The article underscores the neuroendocrine complexities of obesity, citing evidence that long term weight loss is rare through diet and exercise alone due to biological mechanisms defending adiposity. It calls for systemic changes in medical education and language to combat weight bias, advocating for compassionate, evidence based approaches that recognize obesity as a chronic disease rather than a moral failing.

This perspective article critiques the stigmatizing language embedded in the ICD10 code for obesity (E66.01: "morbid obesity due to excess calories"), which perpetuates harmful misconceptions that obesity results solely from poor lifestyle choices. The author reflects on a patient’s experience with weight regain after structured interventions, highlighting how clinical notes and societal messaging fuel shame by oversimplifying obesity as a failure of willpower. The article underscores the neuroendocrine complexities of obesity, citing evidence that long term weight loss is rare through diet and exercise alone due to biological mechanisms defending adiposity. It calls for systemic changes in medical education and language to combat weight bias, advocating for compassionate, evidence based approaches that recognize obesity as a chronic disease rather than a moral failing.