Modern Metabolic Health with Dr. Lindsay Ogle, MD

Why You Need A Board-Certified Obesity Medicine Doctor

• Lindsay Ogle, MD

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Find a board certified Obesity Physician: https://obesitymedicine.org/about/find-a-provider/


You can spend years blaming yourself for “not having enough willpower” when the real problem is that you’ve never had the right kind of medical support. We pull back the curtain on what a board-certified obesity medicine physician actually does, why the training pathway is so long, and how that expertise shows up where it counts: day-to-day care, medication decisions, and real metabolic health outcomes.

We start with the basics of becoming a physician and then get specific about why obesity medicine is different from a standard primary care approach. We talk candidly about weight stigma, medical trauma, and why compassion isn’t a bonus feature, it’s a clinical tool that helps patients stay engaged in care. If you’ve felt dismissed in a larger body, this conversation explains what you should expect from a clinic that’s built to treat people, not judge them.

From there, we dive into GLP-1 medications and why patients often do better with a specialist guiding the process. We discuss individualized titration, side effect mitigation, and staying current as new anti-obesity medications emerge. We also cover a topic that hits home for many listeners: cost. Prior authorizations, billing codes, and insurance criteria are confusing, and it’s common for people to pay out of pocket or get incorrectly told they aren’t covered. We share how specialized obesity care can help uncover options and reduce unnecessary spending.

We close by reframing the goal away from “perfect weight” and toward better health: improved insulin resistance, reduced inflammation, better sleep apnea symptoms, less joint pain, and more energy. Our framework is the four pillars of obesity medicine: treatment options, nutrition, physical activity, and behavior change including sleep and mental health. If this helps you, subscribe, share the episode, and leave a review so more people can find evidence-based obesity medicine and metabolic health care.

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Welcome And Medical Disclaimer

Dr. Lindsay Ogle, MD

Welcome to the Modern Metabolic Health Podcast with your host, Dr. Lindsay Olville, Ford Certified Family Medicine and Obesity Medicine Physician. Here we learn how we can treat and prevent modern metabolic conditions such as diabetes, PCOS, fatty liver disease, metabolic syndrome, sleep apnea, and more. We focus on optimizing lifestyle while utilizing safe and effective medical treatment. Please remember that while I am a physician, I am not your physician. Everything discussed here is provided as general medical knowledge and not direct medical advice. Please talk to your doctor about what is best for you.

How Doctors Become Board Certified

Dr. Lindsay Ogle, MD

So the process to becoming a board-certified physician is long and a little bit complicated, and everyone's path is a little bit different. I'm gonna go over my path to explain it a little bit better. I went to undergrad at Indiana University in Bloomington, and so all physicians have to have an undergrad degree. You can actually choose what major you want, but you do have to have some core science classes that are required for each medical school. I actually chose nutrition science because I was always interested in nutrition and I wanted to learn some information that I could apply to my own life but also my future patients' lives, and it aligned with a lot of the pre-med classes. So I have my undergrad in nutrition science, and then after undergrad or sometimes during undergrad, you take the MCAT, which is a test, um an entrance test to medical school. So based on your undergrad and MCAT, then you apply to medical school, they will accept you hopefully, and then you have four years of medical school. The first two years for most medical schools are in the classroom, learning basic science, and then the last two years you are um really shadowing and helping physicians and residents in medical settings, although you are not um directly making decisions, you are kind of in an truly kind of like an internship and learning clinical medicine that way, and you're deciding what specialty you want to go into. Um, and after you decide what specialty you want to go into, then you apply to additional training program, which we call residency. And I chose family medicine because I wanted to focus on prevention and helping patients achieve and maintain their health. And family medicine residency is three years. Three years is the shortest duration of any residency program. So pediatrics, uh, family medicine, internal medicine, some emergency medicine programs are three years, and then and I think I'm I'm um mentioning all the ones that are three years, and then all the other programs are anywhere from four to seven years, um, depending. And then um some people after that go on to additional training and complete fellowship programs, which are further sub-specialized, and those can be anywhere from one to three years. Um, and so that's a general overview. But my residency program um that was in Colorado, and during family

Why I Chose Obesity Medicine

Dr. Lindsay Ogle, MD

medicine residency, that's where I was introduced to obesity medicine, and I started studying for that. As of right now, um obesity medicine is something that you can get your board certification in without doing a dedicated fellowship. There are fellowships out there, but not very many. Most people do training on their own, go to conferences, and then sit for that board certification after they have their primary board certification. Um so as you can see, that is there's a lot of steps there and it's a little bit complicated. And overall, um, if you count undergrad, then my training was technically 11 years without including the obesity medicine training that I did on the side in addition to becoming a family medicine physician. Um, I say all of that um to highlight the importance of finding the right person who is going to support you in this journey. And I'm partial to working with physicians, um, but I do realize that I'm biased because I am a physician, but there are wonderful, amazing um physician um assistants, although I think they go by physician associates now and nurse practitioners and other healthcare providers out there that you can absolutely work with, and I encourage if if that is what is right for you. But the point of this is to highlight the difference between an obesity medicine physician and other physicians. And I'm saying this as a board-certified family medicine physician, and I practiced primary care for several years in the Kansas City area, and I loved the opportunity to be a primary care physician, but there were a lot of limitations to that job. I was able to promote the fact that I was also board certified in obesity medicine, so many people came to me specifically for weight management, but I was limited in the amount of time that I was able to see those patients. And honestly, there were so many other things that I was focused on during the day with my other patients and their other concerns and having a large patient panel that I was not able to provide the most comprehensive care that I can now that I am able to focus on obesity medicine. So thank you for listening to that overview and my path here to practicing as an obesity medicine physician in private practice. Um, but I do want to highlight those six reasons why I recommend you do consider an obesity medicine physician.

Reason One Compassionate Care

Dr. Lindsay Ogle, MD

The first is that by default, we are very compassionate people. Obesity medicine physicians have gone out of their way to practice in a specialty that focuses on treating patients who have been marginalized and have had to overcome many biases in their personal life and within the medical system. And we have specifically been trained on how to combat our own biases and how to approach patients with compassion. And so every obesity medicine physician that I have met is extremely compassionate, trustworthy, open, great listeners. And I think we are just um great in our field. And so if you have had medical trauma um seeking care when you are living in a larger body, then I am confident that working with an obesity medicine physician will be a different experience. So that is reason number one to seek a board certified obesity medicine physician. Number

Reason Two Better GLP-1 Guidance

Dr. Lindsay Ogle, MD

two is that studies show that patients who work with a board-certified obesity physician are more likely to tolerate their GLP1 medication and therefore maintain it long term. They're more likely to stay in treatment on their GLP1 medication. And this is for a couple of reasons. One, we have more training on how to utilize GLP1 medications. We understand how they work and how to mitigate side effects better. We also have a lot more understanding of the nuance of titrating the medications rather than somebody who does not have that training and is more likely to follow a set titration schedule and are not individualizing the medication to that patient. We also are more likely to stay up to date on recommendations for GLP1 medications as well as the newer medications that are coming out, which are very exciting. So if especially if you've struggled on a GLP1 medication before, you might not have had the correct guidance that an obesity medicine physician would be able to provide you.

Reason Three Finding Real Coverage

Dr. Lindsay Ogle, MD

Reason number three, and this is something that I've seen fairly often, is that patients don't realize that they may actually have coverage for their GLP1. I've seen this in a couple ways. I've had a few patients who have been paying out of pocket for their GLP1 medication, whether that's brand name or compounded versions of the medication, and then they see me, and I um have a better understanding of how to bill and code for that medication and how to complete a prior authorization and get coverage for them. I've also had patients who were told specifically from another doctor that their insurance does not cover the medication, when in fact it does, and that could be just a lack of understanding of coverage or the different qualifications to even attempt coverage. So again, I have been able to see patients save hundreds of dollars by seeing me rather than another doctor. Um, I also have an up-to-date understanding of the direct-to-consumer options for brand name GLP1 medications. That's also something that's changing rapidly. And so utilizing those methods will also help people save money compared to certain compounded versions or using coupons at the pharmacy. There are many options and I discuss those in detail with my patients.

Health Outcomes Over Weight Goals

Dr. Lindsay Ogle, MD

Number four, although we are obesity medicine physicians, we don't necessarily always like to focus on weight. We are always bringing treatment back to health-related outcomes. And so if you are somebody who is wanting to improve your health and improve your well-being and how you feel on a day-to-day basis, I recommend working with an obesity medicine physician because that is our goal. Our goal is not to bring everybody to a quote unquote normal weight or normal BMI. We understand that weight and BMI uh have flaws. They don't tell us the whole picture and that you can be healthy at various sizes. Our goal is to treat the underlying condition. Goes back to why I went into family medicine to begin with, to help with prevention and to help patients achieve and maintain their health. And I believe that obesity medicine is the way to do that for many, many people because by treating the adipose tissue dysfunction, the insulin resistance, increased inflammation, the um just the true weight that causes joint disease and arthritis and obstructive sleep apnea and difficulty breathing and fatigue. We are treating all of those related complications by treating the excess adiposity, the excess weight. And so it helps to get to the underlying cause. And again, we're keeping a health focus. And I will always remind my patients of all of the ways that they are improving their health along this journey. So even though our specialty is called obesity medicine, we truly don't care as much about weight as we do about health. And alongside that, we have the four pillars of obesity medicine. So we're always going to be thinking about these pillars. There is treatment, which is medication andor surgery, nutrition, physical activity, and behavior change, which includes sleep and mental health as well. And so we are thinking about these things constantly for our patients. And so you're getting a very well-rounded approach to your health with your one physician. Um and we refer out when needed. We refer to dietitians, therapists, physical therapists, trainers, specialists in other fields like sleep medicine, endocrinology, obje, neurology, cardiology, nephrology. We work on in a lot of ways like primary care

Longer Visits And Ongoing Support

Dr. Lindsay Ogle, MD

and being kind of like the team lead, but we do have this focus of obesity care. And last, most obesity medicines are in private practice or have a clinic set up where they can see patients for longer periods of time and more frequently. As I mentioned before, and when I was practicing primary care, I was definitely seeing patients for obesity care, but I was not able to see them as frequently or for as long as I can now in my primary practice or my private practice, Missouri metabolic health. In this practice, I see new patients for an hour. And we have a comprehensive intake going over their whole medical history, family history, weight history, what they've tried before, what's worked, what hasn't, what their life looks like right now, their job, their family, who do you live with, um, nutrition, physical activity, sleep, mental health? Um, we talk about their current insurance and what their thoughts are about treatment options. Do we want to focus on lifestyle alone? Do we want to include medication? Should we should we refer to other health professionals? And we come up with a comprehensive plan at the end. Um follow-up visits are always a half an hour. Um, so we can touch on our plan and touch on all those components, and then we follow up typically monthly, sometimes even sooner, and sometimes um once things are settled, we can space it out a little bit. Um, and I have a smaller patient panel, so my patients can message me and I can get back to them fairly quickly. And so we have a very close relationship, and many, many obesity medicine physicians have a similar practice. And so if you are looking for health-focused, compassionate, evidence-based, comprehensive care, then I recommend looking for a board-certified obesity medicine physician.

How To Find Help And Next Steps

Dr. Lindsay Ogle, MD

If you are in Missouri, you can see me at Missouri Metabolic Health. Um, if you have any questions, you can go to the contact page and send a message and we'll get back to you as soon as possible. If you are not in Missouri, then I will include a link so you can find a board-certified obesity specialist in your state. But as always, share this with somebody who would benefit from the information, and I will catch you next week and we will go over a new obesity and metabolic health topic. Take care. Thank you for listening and learning how we can improve your metabolic health in this modern world. If you found this information helpful, please share with a friend, family member, or colleague. We need to do all we can to combat the dangerous misinformation that is out there. Please subscribe and write a review. This will help others find the podcast so they may also improve their metabolic health. I look forward to our conversation next week.