Motivational Interviewing in Obesity Care: Building Skills for Sustainable Behavioral Change

Dr Sanjay Kalra, Treasurer, International Society of Endocrinology (ISE), Vice President, South Asian Obesity Forum (SOF), Bharti Hospital, Karnal, INDIA.

Motivational interviewing equips clinicians to support lasting behavior change by fostering patient engagement, autonomy, and trust.

Obesity is increasingly recognized as a chronic, multifactorial disease requiring comprehensive and patient-centered management. Yet, obesity education remains underrepresented in many medical curricula, leaving future healthcare professionals insufficiently prepared to address both the biological and behavioral dimensions of the condition. Equally concerning is the persistence of weight bias in healthcare settings, which can undermine patient trust, engagement, and health outcomes.

A recent educational intervention involving medical students explored whether a structured obesity-care curriculum could improve knowledge, confidence, and counseling skills. The program combined instruction on weight stigma, motivational interviewing (MI), nutrition, obesity pathophysiology, and simulated patient encounters. Using pre- and post-course assessments, investigators evaluated changes in learners’ self-perceived competence and awareness.

The findings were encouraging. Students demonstrated significant improvements in understanding obesity as a chronic disease, awareness of personal biases, confidence in using motivational interviewing techniques, knowledge of nutrition-based interventions, and use of patient-centered language. Confidence in assessing a patient’s readiness for change increased markedly, as did the ability to guide discussions around healthy eating and physical activity. Participants also reported high satisfaction with simulation-based learning, suggesting that experiential training may be particularly effective in developing communication skills for obesity management.

The study highlights an important shift in obesity care—from a sole focus on weight reduction to an emphasis on behavioral transformation and therapeutic partnership. Motivational interviewing supports this transition by helping clinicians elicit patients’ own motivations, address ambivalence, and collaboratively establish achievable goals. Although conducted in a relatively small cohort of medical students, the findings underscore the value of integrating obesity-specific communication training into medical education. Preparing clinicians to engage patients with empathy, respect, and evidence-based counseling may be essential for improving long-term obesity care outcomes.

(Reference: Dixon KB, Cohen CW, Austin H, Norris E, Ezell JE, Rogers RR, Davuluri S. The impactful weight of treating beyond the scale: a comprehensive course to improve obesity care among medical students. Family Medicine. 2026 Apr 8;58(4):298.)