Unpacking Weight Science Pod-Course Episode 5


'Anatomy of a Weight Loss Paper'


A research paper is a piece of persuasive writing. This episode breaks down how all the pieces fit together, the expected rhetoric of weight loss research, common research methods that guarantee statistical significance at the cost of clinical practicalities, how to spot hyperbole, and how the way we usually read research papers leaves us at the mercy of the authors biases.

Learning Outcomes

Awareness of how to interrogate the methods section of a weight loss paper for non-weight related relevant information

Appreciate the research paper genre as one in which authors, editors and reviewers have creative influence over the findings narrative, in the conducting of the research to start with and during the publishing process

How does the Unpacking Weight Science Pod-Course work as Professional Development?

Each pod-course (podcast-based course) is designed with the continuing professional development of health professionals in mind. Many of the Unpacking Weight Science podcast episodes that the pod-course materials are based around are also available on iTunes, YouTube and Spotify. However, this course is where you can turn them into assessed professional development with a Certificate of Completion.

Listening time is 20-30 minutes per episode. Reading the supporting materials and taking the quiz should take a further 30-40 minutes. This means you'll gain about an hour of assessed professional development from this course. You will have 12 months from your date of enrolment to complete the course.


Course Curriculum


  About this Course
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  Learning Materials
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  Assess your knowledge and skills
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Choose a Pricing Option

This Pod Course is also available in Bundle 1 with Pod Courses 1-5 for $20AUD (great value!)

Bundles can be found below.

About the course developer,

Dr Fiona Willer, AdvAPD, PhD


How do you know that I know what I'm doing with professional development materials? I've been a university lecturer for 15 years, have facilitated professional development workshops for health professionals for 10 years and am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA). My professional development business, Health Not Diets, is a recognised provider of employment-related training by the Queensland Department of Education and Training. I'm also an Advanced Accredited Practising Dietitian (AdvAPD) with Dietitians Australia so you can be sure that I really know my stuff.