ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how the weight paradox came to be and how dietitians and related health professionals have dealt with the resulting dilemma, as well as the attitudes these professionals have toward obesity and the attitudes that members of the public have toward dietitians and their work with weight management. It focuses on the aspect of greatest concern to both lay persons and professionals: excessive fatness. The chapter also focuses on dietitians because they work directly with patients and clients on weight issues. It examines how the meanings of weight dietitians and nutritionists have developed, and the history of dietetics directly. A test of the meanings of weight to nutritionists and dietitians is the attitudes toward members of their profession whose bodies fail to conform to recommended fatness levels. Dietitians employed various means of coping with the weight dilemma without reaching any consensus as to how best to proceed.
