Hello, my name is Todd Weber, PhD, and I am the founder of The Paper Database. I hesitated even writing an About Us page because The Paper Database isn’t about me, it’s about trying to provide health professionals with the best possible information about obesity and how to treat it.
The basic premise is this: we all need to do better. This includes the public, students, academics, public health professionals, nutritionists, personal trainers, journalists, medical professionals, you name it, we all need to accept responsibility for our failures to better help people trying to lose weight and keep it off.
I’m not here to throw shade on health professionals as I’ll be the first to admit guilt. I was a registered dietitian, have a MS in exercise physiology, and a PhD in Bioenergetics and Exercise Science. My dissertation was on fat metabolism. I thought I was an expert in weight management, that is until I started creating The Paper Database and was time and time again humbled by how much I didn’t know about obesity.
The public is so confused about obesity and metabolism, and rightfully so. The health & wellness industry has been plagued by scams, gimmicks, overpromising and underdelivering quacks, charlatans, and poorly trained (but in many cases well meaning) individuals since its inception (not to mention those just in it for the money). The public has no idea how to lose weight, what a realistic weight loss looks like or how to maintain a weight loss, let alone where to even start their journey.
I have mentored numerous dietetic interns, taught nutrition and kinesiology classes at 7 different institutions of higher learning, written blog posts as part of my nutrition counseling business, Energy Balance Nutrition Consulting, ran a podcast, had a YouTube channel, started a Meet-Up, and have embarked on several other nutrition endeavors and although I’ve helped some people, probably more people than I am even aware of, I still can’t help but feel like I haven’t even rippled the water.
When re-examining where I could partner with people to make the biggest impact, The Paper Database repeatedly came to my mind. I created a smaller scale paper database as part of my dissertation, expanded it post-graduation, and have used it extensively. It has turned out to be invaluable. The New Paper Database that I am sharing with you is gigantic compared to my original but so is the topic of obesity!
If we are going to tackle obesity, we need to really understand it and I mean REALLY understand it. My ultimate goal with The Paper Database is to give health professionals a framework to work with. We need to be able to lean on and leverage the experts researching weight management and use their knowledge (in published academic literature) to begin speaking a new language, the language of facts and realities rather than emotions and marketing.
Academic literature doesn’t have all the answers and has its own set of shortcomings. But it is the best thing we’ve got right now so we need to find a better way to use it. That is why I created The Paper Database. If you’ve taken the time to read this far, I encourage you to give it a try and join me in helping people lose weight and keep it off for good.
If you still want to learn more about me (I’m not all that interesting) you can connect with me on LinkedIn. Thanks for taking the time to read all of this and I hope you have a great day.