Updated Training on a Weight-Inclusive Method to Estimating Target Weight Range Goals

Weight restoration is an essential component of eating disorder recovery. However, there is no consensus on how to set recovery weights. Research has often relied on reaching a BMI of at least 18.5 or using median 50% BMI. Given that many people with restrictive eating disorders never reach BMIs this low, this makes little sense. Using methods such as these may keep people genetically predestined to live in larger bodies in a state of chronic illness and/or vulnerable to relapse. It is imperative to consider an individual’s previous growth trajectories with an individualized approach when information is available to do so.

This team of a pediatric medical doctor, registered dietitian nutritionist, and psychologist will review the research and lived experience evidence supporting the need for higher recovery weights for many patients. They will review how to challenge weight stigma in patients, families, and other providers when restoring teens to higher weights. Finally, they will teach a step-by-step method using individualized growth curves, mid-parental heights, and pubertal staging for estimating recovery weights. Participants will be given sample growth data and will gain experience practicing estimating recovery weights using this method.

Learning Objectives:

Following this presentation, participants will be able to:

1. Describe the rationale behind setting individualized recovery weights for teens with eating disorders.
2. Facilitate an open discussion with patients, parents, and families about the reasons to restore teens with higher weights according to historical growth curves to higher weights.
3. Follow the 7-step process for setting recovery weights using historic growth curves.

Rebecka Peebles, MD Bio:

Dr. Rebecka Peebles is the Vice President of Adolescent Medicine at Monte Nido. She joined after 13 years at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and the Perelman School of Medicine at The University of Pennsylvania, where she was an Associate Professor of Pediatrics, specializing in adolescent and young adult medicine. Dr. Peebles is board-certified in pediatrics and further specialty certified in adolescent and young adult medicine, and served as the Director of Medical Research and Quality Innovations in the Eating Disorder Assessment and Treatment Program at CHOP, which she co-founded in 2011. Her research has been funded by the NIH and the American Heart Association and has focused on medical evaluation, bone health, and biobehavioral links in youth with eating disorders. She graduated from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine with her MD in 1996, completed her pediatrics residency at the Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital in Ohio in 1999, and her adolescent medicine fellowship at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford in 2003.  

Katie Grubiak, RDN (she/her) Bio:

Katie Grubiak, RDN graduated from the Coordinated Program in Dietetics at The University of Texas at Austin. She first pursued a career in public health nutrition in San Diego and Los Angeles with a maternal-child focus. It was in the same underprivileged area of Los Angeles where she was serving nutritionally that she began to combine her passions, teaching dance and guiding families of dancers to public health clinic access at a foundation called everybody dance! which was awarded by First Lady Michelle Obama the National Arts & Humanities Youth Program Award. Her involvement in multidisciplinary eating disorder treatment started at the UCLA Arthur Ashe Student Health & Wellness Center. Katie developed a unique style of practicing Family Based Treatment that was driven by her collaborations with Dr. Lauren Muhlheim at Eating Disorder Therapy LA. In addition, Katie was the eating disorder dietitian at Optimum Performance Institute in Woodland Hills, California which specializes in DBT-focused mental health residential treatment for young adults. Katie now has her own nutrition and care coordination private practice named NUTRITION ILLUMINATION.

Lauren Muhlheim, Psy.D., FAED, CEDS (she/her) Bio:

Lauren Muhlheim, Psy.D., FAED, CEDS-C, CBTP® is a psychologist, fellow of the Academy for Eating Disorders (AED), and certified eating disorder specialist (CEDS) and approved consultant for the International Association of Eating Disorder Professionals (IAEDP). Dr. Muhlheim is also a Certified Body Trust® Provider. She directs Eating Disorder Therapy LA, a group practice in Los Angeles. She is certified in FBT for adolescent eating disorders and is the author of When Your Teen Has an Eating Disorder (New Harbinger, 2019). Muhlheim is a co-author of the forthcoming workbook, The Weight-Inclusive CBT Workbook for Eating Disorders: Tools to Reject Diet Culture, Heal Body Shame, and Promote Recovery (New Harbinger, 2026). Dr. Muhlheim has held leadership roles in several professional organizations including the AED, IAEDP, and the Los Angeles County Psychological Association. She has previously been an IAEDP core course instructor. She is co-author with Katie Grubiak, RDN of the EDRD Pro course, FBT-Informed Eating Disorder Treatment: A Course for Dietitians. She provides training on eating disorders to mental health providers and parents internationally. She has a website and a blog and has built a solid professional platform around weight-inclusive modified evidence-based treatments for eating disorders, specifically, CBT and FBT.