Background, quotes, and contact details for journalists covering Dr. Gupta or Welltopia.
Dr. Sandeep Gupta has practised medicine for about 30 years, working specifically in obesity medicine since 2019. He has treated over 5,000 patients through Welltopia’s Anti-Obesity Program, which includes diabetes management, and was a Consultant Physician and Obesity Specialist at Panacea Hospital, Rishikesh, from May to September 2026. He holds an MBBS from S.N. Medical College, Agra, and an MBA from Melbourne Business School, University of Melbourne.
Why India’s new obesity guideline must look beyond BMI
In an opinion piece for The Week, Dr. Gupta argues that India’s National Obesity Guideline, now being developed by ICMR, should not rest on BMI alone. He proposes a gender-adjusted BMI, to be tested on Indian data before the benchmark is finalised, combined with waist-to-height ratio as a second measure of risk.
His forthcoming book, Reversing Obesity: It’s Not About Losing Weight — It’s About Gaining Health™, argues that standard weight-loss advice fails most patients because it treats obesity as a willpower problem rather than the endocrine and metabolic condition it actually is, and that BMI cutoffs calibrated on Western populations miss a substantial share of Indian patients specifically. The book is complete, spanning 27 chapters, and is currently being submitted to literary agents.
Before offering the protocol to a single patient, Dr. Gupta tested it on himself: losing 20 kg over 165 days, from 84 kg to 64 kg. Six years later, his weight remains below 65 kg, a net regain of just 0.8 kg.
Dr. Gupta has challenged the common assumption that rapid loss, such as 10 kg or more in a month, is necessary or beneficial. His stated position: no one should try to lose more than 2–3% of body weight in a month, a pace that still adds up to over 20 kg in a year for a 100 kg patient.