Leonard H. Epstein

Leonard H. Epstein is an internationally recognized authority on childhood and family obesity. He pioneered family-based behavioral treatment, an evidence-based, family-focused approach targeted to children who are obese or overweight and their parents.

His Traffic Light Diet and Activity Plan helps families instill healthy eating and activity habits in overweight children, and it remains one of the few plans shown to produce long-term success for obese children. He was the first researcher to demonstrate a relationship between television watching and childhood obesity. In his National Institutes of Health-funded clinical trials, which have some of the longest follow-up periods in the field, up to 70% of children treated achieved clinically meaningful change in their weight.

Epstein co-developed reinforcer pathology theory, which helps understand why people focus on immediate gratification rather than long-term goals, and is developing treatments to overcome this. One of his studies involves helping people with prediabetes overcome their focus on short-term rewards in order to develop healthier behaviors. Epstein also was the first to study lifestyle exercise, which builds activity into someone’s lifestyle to increase their level of physical activity.

Leonard H. Epstein, MD
SUNY Distinguished Professor and Division Chief, Behavioral Medicine, in the Department of Pediatrics
Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo     

• Email: lhenet@buffalo.edu
  
• Contact: Epstein can also be reached through Ellen Goldbaum in University Communications at 716-645-4605 or goldbaum@buffalo.edu, or Douglas Sitler in University Communications at 716-645-9069 or drsitler@buffalo.edu.
• Leonard H. Epstein's website