This article appeared in the July/August 2021 issue of Discover magazine as "Slim to None." Subscribe for more stories like these.
Ann was a long-standing patient of mine whom I saw for severe gastroesophageal reflux disease, also known as GERD. She was extremely overweight and met medical criteria for morbid obesity. Doctors consider a patient morbidly obese when they are at least 100 pounds over their ideal body weight — and/or when their weight may significantly contribute to medical conditions, like diabetes, high blood pressure, or fatty liver disease, that put their life in danger. Ann was 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighed 250 pounds. She had been a slim 130-pound athlete as a teenager, but had gained weight with each of her pregnancies.
