Last week, I was honored to represent the Society at the American Medical Association (AMA) Annual Meeting of the House of Delegates (HOD). What an important meeting this turned out to be for obesity treatment, as whether or not the AMA should add policy classifying obesity as a chronic disease was a hot topic. The idea that obesity be recognized as a disease by our health care system is one that has been of high priority for the Society. Without this recognition, it is difficult to advance the field of obesity medicine within the medical community. This topic was hotly debated with many arguments both for and against adopting this new policy.  I rallied support from my home state of Colorado, as well as from the Western Mountain States Coalition, which resulted in about 20 additional votes in favor of obesity being recognized as a disease by the AMA. The resolution received support from family physicians, pediatricians, surgeons, endocrinologists, OB/GYNs and anesthesiologists. I was able to testify twice on the issue.  First, in front of an AMA Reference Committee, I urged recognition of obesity as a chronic disease. Second, I testified in front of the entire AMA House of Delegates. Another society wanted to amend the language to read, "medically complicated obesity." This would really have invalidated the whole resolution. I testified that obesity in and of itself is a disease. It causes harm even in the absence of other medical problems to patients psychologically, physically, functionally and medically. My testimony was supported by the American Academy of Pediatrics, which argued that we should not wait for children to develop type 2 diabetes before addressing their obesity, and by the American Academy of Family Physicians, which suggested it would be a good idea to treat diabetic retinopathy rather than wait for a patient to go blind. Although the Society has had its seat in the AMA House of Delegates since 2001, this is the first time our message has had the opportunity to be heard loud and clear during an AMA meeting. But it was heard, and the resolution passed with 60 percent voting in favor of adopting this new AMA policy!