Have you ever wondered if you're getting the correct diagnosis regarding your weight?

What if the number on the scale or your BMI doesn’t tell the whole story about your health?

In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Jaime Ponce, President and Medical Director of the Weight Loss Center of Chattanooga, for a powerful and eye-opening conversation about how obesity is diagnosed, why BMI is outdated, and how we can approach treatment more effectively and compassionately.

We talk through how obesity is a complex, chronic disease—not just a matter of willpower or size—and how you can be overweight without technically having a diagnosis of obesity. But here’s the truth: excess weight can still impact your health. It’s not something to brush off or wait to treat. Dr. Ponce explains that conditions like preclinical obesity—when the damage is starting even before a formal diagnosis—can be just as serious and deserve clinical attention. If you’ve tried to lose weight for years or decades with no lasting success, you’ll walk away from this episode with one clear message: this is not your fault, and more effective and personalized treatment options exist. Let this conversation be the start of your transformation.

IN THIS EPISODE:

• (00:00) Opening and introduction
• (00:55) Dr. Ponce shares his professional journey and discusses obesity rates worldwide
• (08:32) Discussion of the disease called obesity, and BMI is not a good indicator of obesity
• (15:01) Identifying obesity, overweight, and preclinical obesity
• (25:21) Quality of life is a part of clinical obesity, and a thorough evaluation with your doctor
• (37:20) The healthcare system doesn’t recognize obesity for what it is
• (39:53) Time to spread the word—bariatric surgery changes lives.
• (49:30) Dr. Ponce advises anyone considering bariatric surgery

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• You don’t need an official obesity diagnosis to take excess weight seriously—any amount can affect your health, even as outdated views still delay proper treatment.
• Obesity is a complex, individualized disease that requires tailored treatment approaches — not every person with obesity has the same internal damage or health risks.
• Managing obesity is a lifelong process, not a one-time fix — even after initial success with surgery or medication, the disease can persist or recur.
• Stigma and fear often keep people from seeking obesity treatment, but real patient stories are powerful tools to raise awareness and break down those barriers.

RESOURCES:

• BariNation Website 
• Join the BariNation Membership community meetups to support you on your journey with obesity treatment. https://barination.com/pages/join-our-community
• Want to see bonus content? Head over to https://www.patreon.com/BariNationPodcast to get more and support the podcast for as low as $5 per month!    

OTHER RESOURCES: 

Patient Case Study Graphic 1

Patient Case Study Graphic 2

BariNation - Email

GUEST RESOURCES:

Jaime Ponce MD (@JaimePonceMD) / X

Jaime Ponce, MD - President - Weight Loss Center of Chattanooga PLLC | LinkedIn

Dr. Jaime Ponce - Instagram

Dr. Jaime Ponce - Facebook

American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery

Obesity Action Coalition

Weight Loss Center of Chattanooga

BIOGRAPHY: Dr. Jaime Ponce

Past-President of the ASMBS (2012-2013), honored with the Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award (2023), now President and Medical Director of the Weight Loss Center of Chattanooga 

ABOUT:

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April Williams: You've just tuned into a podcast that welcomes you into a community, a resource center, and a safe place that powers your [00:00:15] journey towards personal wellness.

Natalie Tierney: Our goal is you leave us today feeling hopeful, inspired, and ready to live your best bariatric life.

Dr. Jaime Ponce: Thank you, April. Thank you very much for having me here.

Dr. Jaime Ponce: Yes, so I'm a bariatric surgeon. Um, I've been doing bariatric surgery [00:01:00] since, uh, the year 2000. Been, uh, in the area of Chattanooga, Tennessee, which is in the border in between Tennessee and Georgia. Uh, start working in, in a little town that is called Dalton, Georgia. And then moving to Chattanooga, Tennessee, [00:01:15] developing a credit center of excellence and accredited center in both places.

In the year 2012 to 2013. [00:01:45] So it's already been, um, a few years ago. Um, but believe it or not, I was one of the youngest, uh, presidents of the SMBS. Um, I think Phil Shower was younger than me when he became president than myself. [00:02:00] Then, um, I also still very active with the CM Bs. You know, I'm in charge of.

In addition to [00:02:30] that, just a surprise, you know, the SMBS, um, is part of a, uh, world Federation. It's like the United Nations, you know, it's called Ifso. Mm-hmm. The International Federation for Surgery of Obesity and Metabolic Disorders. And so this [00:02:45] federation. Has 70, 77 countries in the federation. One of those is United States and, and one of those societies is the SMBs.

[00:03:15] Um, and, uh, potentially we're gonna keep climbing on that leadership. You know, we're in that leadership, so I'm happy to be here. I have the perspective, not only of United States, but also the international perspective. And, and I think that's valuable and I'm gonna hopefully share [00:03:30] with you and, and other patients that may be watching this, uh, how important it is their testimonial for all of us to create more awareness.

You know, I think that's very important.

The disease of obesity does not discriminate based on where we live or our, our gender, any of that. The, the experience is common across the board, so for you to have such a wide ranging [00:04:15] viewpoint on this disease and how effective surgical treatment is, is just amazing.

Made out of many former patients or some of them, you know, I wanted to ask him and plead that you can make a difference not only in the United States, not only in your town, believe it or not, you can make a difference in the world. And then you may [00:04:45] say, you know, is they have obesity in Australia. Do they have obesity in China?

Why? Because they're adapting our, uh, Western culture. Uh, [00:05:15] they like Kentucky Fried Chicken. They like the fast food. And so all those things can allow them to get into that. And their genetics is not any different. Actually. They have worse genetics in regards to getting sicker faster at a lower weight. [00:05:30] So lower BMI, they get diabetes faster.

Um, it's interesting, you know, you you will say, you know, there is no obesity in Africa, but African Americans, when they come to America, there is a significant degree of obesity when they move into United States.

There are all of these things that can occur within our life that will trigger the disease to turn on. Yeah. And once it's there, that's when you know treatment is gonna be something that you need to pursue.

But if you think about it. Certain cultures grew up with less resources, less food available [00:06:45] over many, many centuries. And so, you know, uh, people that, that were in Africa, they probably did a lot of activity. They ate healthier and a more fiber and, and less of that fatty, [00:07:00] greasy stuff. And so. They probably didn't have as much food as some other cultures.

Because their genes are not designed to, uh, [00:07:30] withstand that much calorie intake that we, we have, uh, here. Wow. Uh, some, some way, somehow the Europeans, uh, managed to handle that because over time they had more access to food. I mean, their body probably adapted to that a little bit [00:07:45] better, but you know.

Regardless of that, you know, we have just so much food and, and this is the, this is the, the time in history in which we have more food available than any other

It is a huge part of our culture here in the United States, but it's fascinating to, to, to have that global perspective on these different Right. Populations within the world are still going to experience it [00:08:15] just in different ways.

Dr. Jaime Ponce: Exactly. Very different. Very different.

April Williams: Well, this is a perfect segue really into the first question I wanted to ask you, which is, why is obesity a disease?

Dr. Jaime Ponce: This is so interesting. Obesity is being known to be a disease for many years. Unfortunately, many of our health organizations, uh, the a MA, the [00:08:45] American Medical Association, just recognized obesity as a disease in 2013.

April Williams: Yeah.

Dr. Jaime Ponce: So we're talking about 12 years ago and not that long ago.

April Williams: Yeah.

Even, um, the SMBS and many other organizations have determined that obesity is a disease. [00:09:15] Why is that? Because it has all the clinical features of any other disease. You know, it creates, um, an imbalance in our body, you know, which it, it does, makes us feel sicker. I mean, just coming to place on simple terms.

Vitamin mass indexes. The only thing that it tells you is that you have how much, how much weight do you have per height?

Dr. Jaime Ponce: And that's it. This is a formula that correlates the amount of weight that you have per height, but it doesn't tell you if the weight is coming from muscle. Mm-hmm. It doesn't tell you if the weight is coming from fat or from bone or from water.

April Williams: Mm.

April Williams: Yeah.

Dr. Jaime Ponce: So I'm glad that you asked this question because very recent, uh, this past year, there was a Lancet Commission.

April Williams: Mm-hmm.

Dr. Jaime Ponce: As a disease. Now it will be very easy to determine obesity, actually with a very fancy scan that is called a DEXA scan.

So we have determine that there are other simplistic ways of [00:12:15] doing it. And so there's certain measurements in the body that can tell us how much fat we have so we can measure. The waist circumference, waist circumference.

April Williams: Mm. And if

Mm. Which puts you in the category potentially of your, [00:12:45] if your obesity being related to having a lot of fat on that weight. Okay. Second one is waist to hip ratio. So you measure the waist and then you measure the hip. The hip is the [00:13:00] widest area of your hip bones, and the waist actually is the narrow narrowest area in your torso, which is in between the rib cage and your hip.

Now the new definitions of the lens that said, okay, we're gonna make it very simple. [00:13:45] If you have a person, uh, that you think that is suffering from obesity. You can calculate, you can do it two ways. You can calculate the BMI and if they have a BMI of 35, then let's calculate one of these [00:14:00] measurements to see if the weight is associated to fat or not.

April Williams: Okay? So for

April Williams: Mm-hmm.

I mean, they have more difficulties walking and shortness of breath and [00:15:00] medical problems. So I'm gonna introduce you to patients. If you allow me to share my screen, I'm gonna introduce you to patient. This is, this is, this is very fun, fun exercise here. Um, this is Maria and [00:15:15] Jack. Can you see the screen?

April Williams: I can.

And I'll just say, if, if you're listening to this podcast, friends, pause head over to YouTube so that you can see what Dr. Ponte is sharing with us.

So in general terms, she was determined to be obese, but she has zero symptoms, [00:15:45] meaning that she feels fine. She has a normal heart, normal lungs, normal kidney functions, no diabetes, uh, maybe slightly elevated cholesterol. She's a teacher, she's a mother of three children, and [00:16:00] she enjoys running several times a week.

So if you just go by the BMI, you will think, well, Maria has obesity, but no, Maria is fine. But then I'm gonna introduce you to Jack and I'm gonna describe Jack for the listeners as well. So Jack has a BMI of 39, and I have a little drawing of Jack for [00:16:45] the listeners. Jack is sitting down holding his chest, uh.

His function, [00:17:15] heart function is reduced, so it's not normal. His pulmonary, uh, his function is more restrictive. You know, he cannot do a good inflation of the lungs. Mm-hmm. Because of their obesity. He has severe [00:17:30] sleep apnea. He use A-C-P-A-P at home, he's.

April Williams: Mm-hmm.

Not only the body fat that I told you at the beginning mm-hmm. But also the symptoms. Uh, [00:18:15] and then we're gonna put these two categories. One that is gonna be called preclinical and one that is gonna be clinical. And so let me stop sharing and I am actually gonna share another one that is also gonna be very fun for your, uh, viewers.[00:18:30]

But, um. That same information. If you don't have the body fat and you just have the BMI, for example, you have a BMI of 37 and you don't have the body fat, that's a no, you are gonna have [00:19:15] no obesity. You see that boxer that I have there on the picture? Mm-hmm. And so forth. You're, uh, listeners and not viewers.

JAK has all kind of symptoms, so he has already the clinical obesity. Which one do you think is more urgent for us to take care of? [00:20:00]

April Williams: I mean, I'd like to say both, but I am, I'm gonna make the assumption that it's the one with clinical obesity. They're, they're the ones that are needing the most help because they're suffering from the most, uh, amount of comorbidities.

I'm gonna start working with you on minimal things. You know, I think this, I think Jack deserves to have the opportunity to have a strong, uh, [00:20:45] evidence-based treatment could be. The GLP ones could be metabolic and bariatric surgery, could be any of those treatments that are evidence-based that allow JAK to get rid of all these problems at that stage.

Dr. Jaime Ponce: As opposed to Maria, Maria is going to have a little bit more of a management, uh, instruction. So maybe we can control Maria. As long as she doesn't have [00:21:15] symptoms 'cause it's not damaging her body. And maybe we can extend her lifespan and, and save those treatments when she gets a little bit sicker or before she start getting very sick.

April Williams: What I see in this from, from my perspective, is a powerful new model to talk about. Really metabolic wellness, right? With, with everybody in [00:21:45] in the world, you can go into meet with your doctor. Have these, these tests done, have these measurements done, but you're not necessarily having a conversation about something as big as surgery.

You know, surgery is, is the only option here. This is a much more holistic approach that takes into account so many facets of people's life, not just their BMI.

April Williams: Yes. And

Dr. Jaime Ponce: not assume that every, everybody has the same degree of obesity and everybody behaves the same way.

April Williams: Yep.

Dr. Jaime Ponce: Uh, psychology.

April Williams: Mm-hmm. Uh,

Yes. So not every single person has. The same damage in their body.

April Williams: Yes. And not

This person has more. [00:23:30] Metabolically resistant obesity, meaning that this is the person that is gonna develop more aggressive diabetes and more aggressive, um, liver disease and more aggressive sleep apnea. It's like cancer, you know, [00:23:45] like there's some people that present with the cancer and the cancer behaves more benign.

April Williams: Mm-hmm.

April Williams: Mm-hmm.

April Williams: Which, [00:24:30] you know, I mean, makes sense.

There's this acknowledgement that this is a disease and it is going to progress differently throughout your life, and as soon as [00:25:00] it really starts to impact you in any type of negative way, that's when you need to reach out to an obesity medicine specialist so that you can start having these conversations.

Dr. Jaime Ponce: remember the, the, uh, the way that, uh, obesity affects our body is not only [00:25:30] organ dysfunction.

Yeah, that's already clinical obesity, but you know, Maria still runs and is [00:26:00] very active. And doesn't have that dysfunction yet. And so it does need some management, but it's more of a preventive management to get it worse instead of, um, you know, more aggressive treatment. Yeah. Now that doesn't mean that [00:26:15] we should stop treating Maria, you know, but Yes.

You know, certainly, uh, Jack needs more help and is more intensive help and, and to take care of his problem.

I was pre-diabetic and it was absolutely impacting my ability to live life in the way that I, [00:26:45] that I wanted to. So had surgery. Wonderful. I have since lost around a hundred. There were concerns in my labs that some of those co comorbidities were returning, right? Elevated cholesterol, elevated A1C. [00:27:00] My, my, my PCP was like, Hmm, okay, something is going on here, and at that point put me on a GLP one medication.

And with my new PCP that I've just started seeing, he recommended to me, he is like, this is not acceptable. This is the disease in action. I know that you're not doing anything wrong, but [00:27:45] let's kind of run through a checklist of lifestyle changes and nutritional, you know, all these things that you're doing.

It's dangerous, it's not healthy, and I know you're not happy with it, but what he said [00:28:15] after was really intriguing and it kind of speaks to to, to this commission and to what you're talking about. He said, okay, this is what we're gonna do immediately. I want you to go downstairs. You're gonna have all of this blood work done, and then next week we're gonna meet again.

I don't think he's an obesity medicine specialist, but he himself struggles with weight. He has a lot of bariatric patients, uh, who he sees [00:29:00] and he said. Look at your, look at your data. He said there's a lot to celebrate here. You have less than a 1% chance of a cardiovascular event happening in the next 10 years.

Here's, here's two [00:29:30] things that I want you to do. Your resting metabolic rate, your metabolism is absolutely being impacted by the disease of obesity. My RMR was only 1300 calories, extremely low, and he said we have to get that up again if we want [00:29:45] to encourage your metabolism to function at a higher level.

But instead of him, right, coming and just saying, oh man, yeah, boy, this just sucks. Let's just, you know, medication revision. He went [00:30:15] so much, uh, deeper and he helped me understand how the disease was impacting me. Not the general population and that knowledge has helped me make some big changes in my life that I'm [00:30:30] already feeling better from.

But if he wouldn't have had that conversation and, and if we wouldn't have really approached obesity in this way that you're talking about today, I would be stuck and frankly be feeling a little bit outta options. So

Something that you cannot get out of the BMI, which is the first, the first limitation that we had before. Mm-hmm. Second thing that you got out of this, and you already [00:31:00] know, I've seen you talking about this before your other podcast, is you understand that obesity is not. Curable is a chronic disease that is manageable and so manageable [00:31:15] means that you are gonna have to manage it through your whole life because your body's already working in a way that tends to re.

Yeah. Many things that you, of course we can, we can talk extensively, you know, why do a patient need provisional surgery? Well, there's, there's many reasons. You know, one, the surgery can [00:32:00] be with time. They need to be crafted and adjusted because either your pouch is larger, you because you need a little bit more, um, uh, segment of your bowel that can limit that absorption and then create more metabolic influence on your body.[00:32:15]

But, um. Sometimes the, the medications, the new GLP ones have demonstrated that can allow to recuperate that ability for the patient to start getting on back on track. And so,

April Williams: yeah,

We don't have an answer right now on that because all the GLP ones are new. Uh, and there's many in the pipeline. I can tell you, I'm so excited about the future. This is probably, if. [00:32:45] Person suffering from obesity and are listening to this podcast, I, I cannot tell you that this is the most exciting times of managing obesity because we have now more tools that actually work [00:33:00] better and in the pipeline, meaning on the next few years, we're gonna have better and better tools.

It's [00:33:30] like, it's like when you have, um. Cancer one more time. And then you have all these chemotherapy and you're trying to beat and eventually the cancer kind of wins and boom, that's not good. Yeah. And so [00:33:45] now we have stronger chemotherapy and we're trying to beat the cancer. Perfect. That's what we have.

April Williams: The first [00:34:15] person to actually ever talk to me about surgery was my husband. And I think we were just dating at the time, and he just very casually, not in any judgmental way, just said, you know, have you ever thought about bariatric surgery? And my initial resPonce was, oh no, that's for people [00:34:30] who are 600 pounds, right?

I just wish more people would be more open to pushing aside those narratives and [00:35:00] just make an appointment with an obesity medicine specialist. I now understand I have a chronic and lifelong disease. This is going nowhere. It is the roommate in my life, but I can either be mad at it, I can ignore it, I can try to [00:35:15] push it away, and that's not gonna work.

I. And when their cancer recurred. Never did I think, well, that's, that was your fault. Well, you, you ate too many fried foods, or you did too. Yeah. No,

April Williams: It's not even a question. So when I started struggling with weight recurrence and this recurrence, uh, of these obesity symptoms, I did kinda start to go down that negative pathway, uh, of beating myself up and blaming myself.

Dr. Jaime Ponce: So this is, this is, uh, part of what you've been talking about also in another podcast. You know, the stigma and bias against obesity Yes. Is so tremendous. Like you stated, you know, nobody is [00:36:30] going to tell a patient with a heart attack. With plaques in the arteries.

April Williams: Mm-hmm.

Dr. Jaime Ponce: Why do you have all that much cholesterol there?

You know? Or a smoker with lung cancer? Why you smoking? You just go and treat it and that's it.

Dr. Jaime Ponce: And, and people are not afraid of going to treatment that because they think that they're gonna die. But in obesity, people are. Even the patients that are suffering from obesity, they're afraid of saying, you know, I'm under treatment, or I'm gonna have surgery, or I'm taking this medication.

April, um, we have recently a big meeting, um, that is called the Obesity Summit. You know, we, we got together. [00:37:30] About a hundred people representing about 40 different organizations, uh, organizations. Some of them dedicated to obesity and some of them not dedicated to obesity, but they deal with obesity. For example, uh, [00:37:45] the president of the, uh, society for Sleep Apnea.

You know, all these clinical societies all together in a room and we start addressing. So one of the biggest things that we have is that the therapies that we have [00:38:15] for BC are the most. Underutilized therapies. Can you imagine if I tell you that only one to 2% of the diabetes are receiving treatment? [00:38:30] Or only one to 2% of the patients suffering from heart disease are receiving treatment for heart.

April Williams: Mm-hmm.

But if you show up to the ER with obesity there, you're not gonna receive treatment for obesity. And it's only one to 2% [00:39:00] of the people are receiving treatment for obesity. That's, it's pretty devastating. I mean, it's just so, so ridiculous to have those small numbers. So one of the biggest things that we have that's Summit is awareness.

Mm-hmm. And all these drugs. Uh, but never talk about, uh, surgery. Never talk about all these because we don't have those pockets. Your patients. The patients. My patients. [00:39:45] Any patients that have received the treatment could be the biggest source of awareness. And we haven't tapped into that. Yes. Can you imagine if the, about 200 plus thousand patients [00:40:00] that are receiving surgery in the United States per year?

He has this initiative this year. He wants to do a worldwide, worldwide awareness of the problem using patients' testimonials and. Why we're doing that because we don't have a big budget. [00:40:45] Why we're doing that? Because we don't have the budget that, uh, surgical, uh, I mean that Medicare, pharma companies have, pharma companies have a lot of money, and so we're gonna do that.

And we're gonna guide these people to do good videos. You know, everybody can share the story, but sometimes the videos can, if they're not good quality people. Just little bit over and they don't. Mm-hmm. So it's much better [00:41:30] to have good lighting. It's much better to have good microphone, uh, the voice and not too long.

You can tell us in one [00:42:00] minute how your life changed from when you were this way and now you are this way, and what you did briefly, how much that changed your life, how much That's exciting. Get good lighting. Get good, uh, [00:42:15] audio. And you can do it at home. I mean, I think the best way to do it is. Not necessarily sitting down in front of a computer.

And in one minute you can send a message that is attractive, appealing. Uh, videos can always be modified a little bit by [00:43:00] putting captions, by putting a message from this patient. So Maria. Has this message for you, Jack has this message for you. Uh, and this is almost like a social media commercials that [00:43:15] in a low budget system is what we have and why, why people need to help us do that.

The 600 pound shows makes it unrealistic. Those are [00:43:45] the patients that are already too far out in the disease. You. Need care way before the 600 pounds. And so Yep, there's, there's, there's many ways that we can use those videos to help out. Um, I'm [00:44:00] gonna reach out to April actually, and I'm gonna make that formal request at some point because I know you have a lot of people that follow you.

And then

We made the commitment because we connected with another patient who was successfully living their life after bariatric surgery in the most joyful ways. That's it. Uh, at last year's A-S-M-B-S, uh, conference, [00:44:45] uh, uh, Dr. Ann Rogers, I was in a meeting with her and she just point blank said, look, the only way that you are going to get more people going through this treatment is if you have them talk with other patients.

You ate some Cheetos last week. You sat on the couch like a couch potato and did nothing. I could run through a thousand things that I have done recently that would make me a [00:45:30] bad, and I'm putting this in air quotes, bariatric patient and I was beating myself up. Really, I. For years and what has helped me change that is when I got these test results back and my new PCP said, girl, you really are doing [00:45:45] amazing.

One meal here, one snack here. One day of being lazy, one day of not so great mental health is not going to derail this progress that I've made. And I felt so [00:46:15] scared to kind of share these things, but now that I have the data for me, it's like, okay guys, look. What you're doing is just life, but we are doing things right and if we are focusing on our bariatric life, if we're living those pillars, movement, mindset, [00:46:30] metabolic wellness, community, if we're doing those things, we are treating and managing the disease.

It's about learning how to do all these things that we already know how to do a little bit [00:47:00] differently, and we back those decisions with data that shows that we are making progress and we are treating the disease. It's not this all or nothing mindset. It is a yes and yes, I'm turning the disease and I continue to live life in a way that brings me [00:47:15] joy.

Those are the stories that I think are really gonna resonate with people who are battling obesity and don't know what to do.

I'm trying to exercise. They should not blame themselves. It's like, it's like somebody that has cancer and blaming themselves. I mean, this is, this is a disease because if you think about it, the [00:47:45] hormones are the ones that are messing them up. Amazing. They get more hungry. Mm-hmm. Because they have more GH grilling, that's the hunger hormone.

So these patients are not understanding that their body is messed up. The body needs help [00:48:30] in actually, we have treatment. Why you think the drugs work? Because they're actually giving you more of the good hormone, the GLP ones, they're making you more satisfied and less hungry. And, uh, surgery gives you also blocks the bad hormone, which is [00:48:45] the gh grilling.

April Williams: I have one final question for you, and it's, it's a bit of a two. Mm-hmm.

Dr. Jaime Ponce: I think if you are sitting down and listening to this and you think that you are suffering from obesity, I want you to go.

Mm-hmm. That can give you access to the different treatments options. The other one is the OAC, the Obesity Action [00:50:15] Coalition o Obesity explanation, you know, will give you specialties not only from surgery, but also from obesity medicine in different ways. But what I want you to do is to go and. Look at the, the, the one that is in your town, the [00:50:30] one that is in your place, and look and see if they offer all treatments.

Offering surgery, but it's also certified in obesity medicine. Yes. So for example, myself, [00:51:00] I am a bariatric surgeon certified by the American Board of Surgery, but also I am an American Board of Obesity Medicine diplomat. And I have a whole team, a nurse practitioner, a dietician that the only thing that they do as obesity medicine in my clinic.

Look at the websites, for example, and I'm just gonna give you an example. This is not an advertisement. Look on my website. And this is a website that offers clearly when you start seeing the website, you overs all the [00:51:45] treatments. And so if you have a similar website in Wisconsin or in California that you see all those, those are the places you need to go.

So it's, it's funny, but I'm in Chattanooga, so you don't have to come to Chattanooga. But this is just to give you an idea. Are gonna to look at websites and how they need to look like.

Ponte is, is recommending for, for you to check out. And if you need help or guidance, or [00:52:45] you're looking for a cheat sheet, just let us know. You can actually email us at hello@berrynation.com. We're here to also help guide you through this process. We understand how overwhelming it can feel. We also know that the hardest step that we take along this journey is [00:53:00] that initial outreach.

It can be really scary 'cause you just know, don't know what's gonna meet you on the other side of it. We are absolutely here to, to help you through that.

I say, you know what? Don't be nervous. This is a friendly environment. We all are gonna here to take care of you. The reason that I choose to do this is to see people are walking to the door of my clinic [00:53:30] walking. I mean, there. Suffering from obesity, but they're walking. I mean, they're not like dying, and so what we need to do is to help them to get better.

All those things are the reasons that we do this because of the rewarding of seeing the patient change in their life, and you see. I mean, things as simple as I seen female patients. They [00:54:15] say, you know, I have never ever in my life have a guy open the door for me. No, they do. Mm. So you don't do that for that reason.

Many people stay in a home [00:54:45] and they wait longer and longer and longer. Why? Because of the bias and the stigma. Yep. Yes. Come sooner. April knows that, uh, April. And I wanted to congratulate you because putting this podcast in the work that you're doing is a [00:55:00] massive word to create awareness. And we need more of that.

We need more Aprils in the world to, to spread the word out. Yeah.

And we want everybody who's suffering from the disease of obesity or, or in that pre [00:55:30] preclinical, preclinical, yep. Everybody deserves the treatment. Uh. It doesn't matter on what you think you've done in your life to cause it, you haven't. And that shame is keeping you stuck. And the only [00:55:45] thing that is gonna move you forward is to get curious and to get brave and make that appointment.

You have to take that first step. You have to get brave, you have to get [00:56:15] curious, but. We are here to help you every step of the way along with doctors who are like Dr. Poi here. They believe in you. They want you to get the treatment that you need and deserve, and they're here to partner with you. You just have to take that leap of faith and do it

You have to take, when they, when a patient shows up in the office, they have taken the biggest step in the world, which is showing up in the office. That's when they're asking for help and we're ready to help them. This is what we do. This is what we enjoy doing it. Thank you very much, [00:56:45] April, for inviting us to this.

This is, this is, this is very, very pleasant to have this conversation. This is nice.

Pon has shared with us in those show notes. You can follow him, reach out to him directly. As you can tell, he is here to help patients everywhere. So if you'd like to further connect. With him. All of us can be linked in our [00:57:15] show notes. Dr. Ponte, thank you so much for your time today. This was amazing.

Dr. Jaime Ponce: Thank you very much, April.

Thank you.

Natalie Tierney: Join us at barination.mn.co.

Jason Smith: And just remember at the end of the day, you've got this. We've got you. And we'll see you next time. Bye [00:58:00] everybody.