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

In this episode, I sit down with fat activist, author, podcaster, and feminist, Virgie Tovar. We cover:

• Virgie's experience growing up in a fat family and how that shaped her early relationship with her body
• Fat activism vs body positivity & the evolution of these frameworks
• The intersection of queerness & fatness, & the having your heartbroken by the culture
• The ethics of GLP-1’s and prescribed starvation
• GLP-1s as a pump an dump marketing cycling
• How to cope with feeling the pressure of going on a GLP-1 for weight loss
• Living a life of integrity vs a life of apology
  
  

More From Virgie:

• Virgie's website
• Virgie's Substack
• A 5 Stage Model of Fat Identity Development

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 is joined by licensed therapist and body image expert, Bri Campos, to talk about picture grief.

Learn more from Bri on her website.

More from Leah:

Download your free Intuitive Eating Starter Kit
Apply to The Embodied Method, my 1:1 coaching program
Join my self-paced course, The Return
Subscribe to my personal Substack
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.
Follow me on Instagram for more intuitive eating content @leahkern.rd
Email me: Leah@leahkernrd.com

In this episode, we cover:

• My story with navigating the holiday season before and after becoming an intuitive eater and healing my body image
• Common hurdles to navigating the holidays as an intuitive eater
• Specific tips for handling loved-ones still entrenched in diet culture
• How to avoid eating past comfortable fullness at the big holiday meal(s)
• Dealing with the desire to fill the void of unmet needs with food
• Moving through the sadness that can come up when a delicious celebratory meal is coming to an end.
• Navigating the situation where you’re being hosted for the holidays and don’t have control over food and mealtimes

Download the FREE Intuitive Eater Holiday Survival Guide

📣 Subscribe to our Youtube Channel!

Download your free Intuitive Eating Starter Kit
Apply to The Embodied Method, my 1:1 coaching program
Join my self-paced course, The Return
Subscribe to my personal Substack
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.
Follow me on Instagram for more intuitive eating content @leahkern.rd
Email me: Leah@leahkernrd.com

In this episode, I'm joined by Dr. Alexis Conason, Licensed Therapist and Certified Eating Disorder Consultant. We discuss:

• How Alexis went from studying Obesity Medicine to weight inclusive medicine
• What the Obesity Medicine research actually points to
• How to navigate the tension between validating desire for weight change while also wanting food freedom
• What might really be underneath statements like, “I just felt better when I was X pounds lighter.”
• How working alongside her husband, another weight-neutral provider, has impacted her work
• Tips for finding a non-diet, HAES-aligned therapist

More From Alexis:

• https://drconason.com/
• https://www.conasonpsychologicalservices.com/about
• Buy her book!

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, we discuss:

• How diet culture can steal our values
• Values-aligned living, resilience, & confidence
• How to tell if you're acting out of alignment with your values
• An exercise for figuring out your values

Resources Mentioned:

• Values Exercise: https://d11n7da8rpqbjy.cloudfront.net/leahkernrd/482_1669901562874Confidence_ValuesDrivenLiving_Module2.pdf
• Brene Brown values list: https://brenebrown.com/resources/dare-to-lead-list-of-values/

👉Get on the waitlist for our new 10 steps to food freedom audio course

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