Dr. William Dietz is correct in pointing out that our support for people-first
language in Obesity has been more a case of “talking the
talk” than “walking the walk.” We thank Dr. Dietz for bringing
this important issue to our attention. We will institute the following changes in our
policies for both potential authors and accepted manuscripts. First, we will amend our
Author Guidelines, Submission Checklist, and Ethical Policies documents to inform
authors of our support for people-first language, including our position that
"obese” should not be used to describe individuals or groups of
individuals. Second, our editorial team will work with authors to change
“obese” as an adjective to terms such as “people with
obesity” and “populations with obesity.” Such changes will take
time and will need careful consideration from both the editorial team and the authors in
order to “walk the walk.”