About Dr. Larimer

Dr. Larimer focuses on medical, nutritional, social, and psychological needs that affect the treatment of obesity.

We are not a weight loss clinic, we as are a medical specialty practice that treats the disease of Obesity with multiple interventions to help people lose and /or control their weight.

Cindi Larimer, MD

Board Certified in Family Medicine since 1997 and Board Certified in Obesity Medicine since 2014.

• Medical School at UCLA.
• Family Practice Residency at the University of Florida.
• Assistant clinical professor at the University of Florida in Family Medicine and Geriatrics for 7 years.
• Active member of The Obesity Society and Obesity Medical Association.
• Strong supporter and member of The Obesity Action Coalition, a national group that fights obesity bias and advocates for fair insurance coverage of obesity medical care.
• American Academy of Family Medicine Fellowship.
• Gainesville resident of 30 years; raised her family here, loves the area and the community.

Dr. Larimer’s Story

As a kid I wanted to be a doctor, teacher, or architect. I was poor, so did a trade school and became a medical assistant. Later, I went to night school for junior college and UC San Diego for bachelors degree.   In 1983, I started medical training at UCLA School of Medicine. Although I loved my psychiatry and ER rotations, I felt the best direction for me was becoming a family medicine doctor. I came to Gainesville for residency at UF in Family Medicine, then  took a teaching position in a rural clinic in Dixie county. This clinic included the only urgent care and emergency provider in that county. I worked ER, urgent care, and hospital medicine for the next 20 years while raising my daughter here.

I was lucky to also be a leader and a “cookie mother” for my daughter’s Girl Scout Troop. As for many, January often included a New Year’s resolution to quit smoking with then replacing that addiction and craving with a box of Girl Scout Cookies each day. Over several years I worked too much, slept too little, and gained 60-70 extra pounds. Over the course of these years, I stopped and restarted smoking and lost/then regained weight multiple times. I successfully quit smoking in 2006 and aggressively pursued a regimented diet and exercise program, losing about 40 pounds.  (Regaining some when my best friend died of cancer and I consumed amazing amounts food by emotionally eating).

In 2006  upon hearing a lecture series on weight control I was hooked. I wanted to know more about this complex disease so I studied the textbooks, joined the two national scientific obesity societies, and attended extra sessions at conferences. I started weight loss medicine care in rural Lake Butler. In 2014, I passed the American Board of Obesity Medicine’s national board exam.

My lifelong dream of a private practice came true in 2016 when I opened Gainesville Medical Obesity Specialty Clinic.  I chose this name because we are not a weight loss clinic, we are a medical specialty clinic that treats the confusing, relapsing, frustrating disease of Obesity.

Using my training and personal  weight loss experiences, my goal is to be  a medical partner with my patients to help them see their weight in a different way; not as a behavior but as a complex, multi-factorial, lifelong recurrent disease.

– Cindi Larimer, M.D.