In this episode of Shoulders Down Podcast, Leah talks with Dr. Lauren Hartman, a double board-certified pediatrician and adolescent medicine specialist, about why dieting and weight-focused care can be especially harmful for children and teens — and what she’s seeing on the front lines of adolescent eating disorder treatment.

Drawing from nearly 20 years of experience across hospital systems, outpatient care, and national leadership roles, Dr. Hartman explains why weight loss is rarely sustainable, how dieting increases eating disorder risk, and why a medicalized focus on weight often misses what young people actually need to thrive.

Leah and Dr. Hartman also discuss the rise in eating disorders among adolescents, the role of social media and diet culture, and growing concerns around GLP-1 medications.

You’ll hear about:

• A doctor’s perspective on why dieting and weight loss often backfire
• Whether eating disorders are on the rise among adolescents — and what’s driving the increase
• How social media and diet culture impact teens’ relationships with food and body
• GLP-1 medications and the risks of prescribing them to young people
• What informed consent should include when it comes to weight-loss interventions
• How parents can help protect children from diet culture and weight stigma

More From Dr. Lauren Hartman: https://www.aspengroveayam.com/

More From Leah:

• 📚Download your free Intuitive Eating Starter Pack
• Apply to The Embodied Method, my 1:1 coaching program
• Join my self-paced course, The Return
• Subscribe to Leah's Youtube Channel
• Subscribe to my personal Substack
• Follow me on Instagram for more intuitive eating content @leahkern.rd
• Visit my website to learn more about my coaching offerings
• Subscribe to my weekly newsletter to get a nugget of intuitive eating inspiration delivered straight from my heart to your inbox each week.
• Send me a voice message on Speakpipe
• Email me: Leah@leahkernrd.com

In this episode of Shoulders Down Podcast, Leah talks with therapist and certified intuitive eating counselor, Libby Supan, about her 15 years in Overeaters Anonymous (OA) — and why she ultimately believes the program worsened her eating disorder rather than healed it.

Libby shares how OA’s abstinence-based model, the idea of food and sugar addiction, and rigid sponsorship dynamics fueled binge eating, shame, and co-dependency. Together, Leah and Libby unpack the concept of “fat serenity,” the fatphobia embedded in the OA ethos, and why abstinence backfires.

Libby also explains how eating disorder treatment and intuitive eating helped her rebuild trust with her body, move away from restriction, and find a more sustainable path to recovery.

You’ll hear about:

• What Overeaters Anonymous (OA) is and how it works
• The link between abstinence, restriction, and binge eating
• Why the Food addiction model is inherently flawed
• Sponsorship, power dynamics, and co-dependency in OA
• “Fat serenity” & fatphobia in the OA community
• How Libby left OA after 15 years and found true healing
  
  

Mentioned in the episode:
https://leahkernrd.com/are-you-addicted-to-sugar/

More From Libby:

Website: https://www.libbysupan.com/

More From Leah:

• 📚Download your free Intuitive Eating Starter Pack
• Apply to The Embodied Method, my 1:1 coaching program
• Join my self-paced course, The Return
• Subscribe to Leah's Youtube Channel
• Subscribe to my personal Substack
• Follow me on Instagram for more intuitive eating content @leahkern.rd
• Visit my website to learn more about my coaching offerings
• Subscribe to my weekly newsletter to get a nugget of intuitive eating inspiration delivered straight from my heart to your inbox each week.
• Send me a voice message on Speakpipe
• Email me: Leah@leahkernrd.com

In this episode, Leah's reflection on 6 wellness trends that shaped 2025.

She covers:

• The proteinification of everything & whether or not its worth the hype
• GLP-1s and the normalization of thinness at all costs
• Increased body monitoring— Oura Rings, Glucose Monitors, & Apple Watches— & how this might impact intuitive eating
• Pilates culture: the matching sets, the "toned but not too muscular" promise, & the elitist, weight stigmatizing undertones
• The pros & the cons of our cultural obsession with steps

Mentioned in the episode:

• 5 Reasons Why Your Weight Doesn't Determine Your Health episode: https://leahkernrd.com/%F0%9F%91%89-5-reasons-why-your-weight-doesnt-determine-your-health/

More From Leah:

• 📚Download your free Intuitive Eating Starter Pack
• Apply to The Embodied Method, my 1:1 coaching program
• Join my self-paced course, The Return
• Subscribe to Leah's Youtube Channel
• Subscribe to my personal Substack
• Follow me on Instagram for more intuitive eating content @leahkern.rd
• Visit my website to learn more about my coaching offerings
• Subscribe to my weekly newsletter to get a nugget of intuitive eating inspiration delivered straight from my heart to your inbox each week.
• Send me a voice message on Speakpipe
• Email me: Leah@leahkernrd.com