Does your doctor comment on your weight?

estherdragonbat

Need2Exerc1se wrote: »

TeacupsAndToning wrote: »

Need2Exerc1se wrote: »

TeacupsAndToning wrote: »

Katiebear_81 wrote: »

The only doctor who mentioned my weight was my OB/GYN. I was seeing her for a prolapsed uterus. She mentioned that if I lost a bit of weight, the symptoms might be less pronounced. She also told me (when I was pregnant) that I needed to be more careful with how much I was gaining, however conceded that I was retaining a lot of water so as long as my test results continued to be good (they were), she wouldn't require me to diet/restrict calories.

My regular doctor remarked that she noticed that I had lost weight when I had dropped around 50 lbs (from 180 to 130), but I've mostly been in the "overweight" section of the chart, and not obese, so I think they don't say as much.

I'm in Canada, where doctors are also hard to get in to, so they're not worried about loss of income.

Aren't our doctors paid by the Government? Then it wouldn't matter at all if they lost a patient who got offended because that patient causes no effect on their income.

Are they paid a flat salary regardless of number of patients?

I just googled and I think it depends on where they work, but a lot of doctors are actually government employees and they're paid on salary, I believe. So in those cases, number of patients wouldn't matter.

Interesting (I'm in the US). I could see pros and cons to this. More incentive to keep you healthy so they only need to see you for checkups. But I wonder if it also might keep some doctors from taking new patients or targeting patients with more illness since seeing more patients or more visits doesn't generate more income.

In Canada also. I know the GP I had before this one wouldn't have taken me on if I'd been a smoker.

bobshuckleberry

When I was 265 every doctor I went to indicated that I needed to lose weight, my comorbidities were many. I am not sure I would want a doctor that did not address that. Mine still does after he sees the number because my BMI is never where it should be. Our company requires certain metrics to earn cheaper insurance premiums. If I want to pass on weight I have to do a bod pod to show fat percentage.

StarBrightStarBright

My OBGYN commented at my appointment last January. After years of holding my weight steady I had creeped up into overweight BMI. She asked me what was going on and told me that she uses MFP to monitor her food intake so here I am

MadDogManor

tantan120 wrote: »

Yes my doctor says everything is related to weight. Broke my ankle? Cos I'm fat. Have a cold? Cos I'm fat. One even said to me years ago "it's a shame you've let yourself get so fat, because you're a very pretty girl and I'm sure if you weren't so big you'd have found a husband by now". It was so offensive on so many levels. I just changed practices but I wish I'd have complained

For me, too. Recurring sinus and ear infections? Bc I'm fat. Headaches, eye pain? Same. Took 25 years for a doctor to finally do one CT scan of my sinuses, then immediately schedule me for sinus surgery. Musta been bc I was fat. My varicose veins? Painful and swollen when I was fat, but also when I had lost weight. No answer for that one. I'm very cynical and distrusting of all of the medical field and it's very hard to impress me. Not bc I'm fat, but bc I've worked in the medical field for 30 years now.

ree2lose

I have never had a doctor NOT tell me to lose weight. Never offended though, my response was/is always "yeah I know...". This includes my primary doc, ob, neurologist and even my eye doctor lol

bigjonb4116

when i was at my heaviest, 456lbs, every conversation would end with,'if you could lose some weight it would really help!', they were also suprised that i was never diabetic, and my cholesterol was low.
But rather flatteringly after losing the weight that i have lost so far they asked me if i would talk to a group of weightloss patients, or potential weightloss patients, to tell them what has been working for me.
The trouble is now that when i get weighed at my surgery every couple of weeks there is always that aire of expectation on me to have lost more.... !! my number one suggestion for successful weightoss is 'mindset' you have got to want it gone for good! thats the only thing that has changed this time round compared to the last 40 yrs of trying to lose it! and using MFP of course...
One thing i have noticed is that the younger doctors have a much better grasp about weightloss that the older ones... they seem to understand it more.....

Vune

I see a nephrologist every 3 months for my 17 year old kidney transplant(due to Alport Syndrome). A couple years ago, I put on 30 lbs between appointments due to the vicious cravings caused by zyprexa (for a mental health diagnosis that went away with increased sleep), and I didn't hear a peep out of my doctor. My blood pressure was also elevated, but he didn't even mention that. Fast-forward to the appointment after I lost the weight of my own volition, and he mentioned the weight loss:

Me: Why didn't you mention the incredibly fast gain?
Neph: You're not really supposed to talk about a woman's weight.
Me: ?!?!?!?!
Me: You're a nephrologist! The top causes of kidney disease are high blood pressure and diabetes! We need you to talk about the stuff we'd rather ignore.

I've maintained my loss, so I don't know if he took our conversation to heart, but I'm glad to see I'm not the only one concerned with how society is changing the role of doctors.

joelchmielak1

Every visit. When he put me on HB pills. When he upped the dosage. When he did ekg's. When he referred me to a sleep apnea test. When he put me on diabetes meds. And lastly when he told me I was one of his few patients who turned it all around and took me off diabetes meds and cut my bp pills. My doc has never pulled punches. It's one of the reasons I stay with him.

TonyB0588

Tweaking_Time wrote: »

Has your doc ever suggested you lose weight? If so, were you offended?

I asked my doc if she ever suggested people lose weight, eat better, exercise more, etc. She said that her answer would be mostly "No." When I asked her why she explained that being a doctor is a business and if she would critique each patients weight, she is sure she would lose patients, especially the easily offended ones. She also said if the patient asks her opinion about their weight, should would gladly help them with a diet/exercise plan.

That's ridiculous. Weight is an indicator of health, and any good health care provider ought to be checking and recording weight, and recommending appropriate course of action if change is needed. That's how I got to be on MFP - doctor suggested I needed to lose a bit of weight, exercise more, and eat differently. This site is handy for tracking both food and activity, so here I am today.

Strawblackcat

Mine never commented on it when I was overweight. If anything, she used to comment that my blood sugar was a little high, but she never stated anything about my weight.

100 lbs lighter, and now she tells me that I'm a bit underweight and that I could stand to gain a few pounds. I just go "Nope! I've worked hard to get where I am! " and go on with my day.

sarahthes

My doctor isn't so much concerned with my weight as he is with my waist circumference. He's happy with the fact that I've lost 70 lbs even though I've plateaued lately. And encourages me to keep active. I admit I don't want to complain about plateauing because he will just tell me to go keto again and I can't run or lift when I'm doing keto...

(Plateauing because rungry. Maybe moar exercise is the solution?)

saltlakecitywestsider

The only doctor I ever go to is an optometrist. So no weight comments.

MeanderingMammal

GlassAngyl wrote: »

lemurcat12 wrote: »

GlassAngyl wrote: »

Nope and it's irritating as well as sad. We have arrived in an era where it's better to let people kill themselves than chance losing customers because of the easily offended mouth breathers.

Odd, from talking to my doctor and talking to friends who have heard their doctor talk about weight and such, seems like it's really common around here for doctors to raise the issue (my doctor says that she thinks it's a medical obligation), so I think your generalization that doctors don't is off-base, or at least a major over-generalization.

I think it is more about my tone. I'm cynical. But to ease your troubled mind, allow me to clarify what it was that I was responding to..

Question: (Does your doctor comment on your weight?)
Answer: (No and it's irritating..)

Responder: (I asked my doc if she ever suggested that people lose weight, eat better, exercise more, etc. She said that her answer would be mostly, "No." When I asked why.... ) etc etc etc
My response: (We have arrived on an era when it's better to let others kill themselves..)

Que the videos of people getting beat up or robbed while others video tape.

We have arrived in an era..

Que the videos of people walking past the homeless man ignoring him until one person out of thousands steps up to do the right thing..

We have arrived in an era..

Que the wealth we have in abundance, throwing away left overs, letting properties sit unlived in for tax purposes rather than help out a homeless single mother. The vet suffering from ptsd that has been abandoned and neglected..

Am I generalizing? Well, when the general idea is me first and not my problem? Yeah, I suppose in that regard, I am. And we are all guilty of it.

So what exactly triggered that?

Do we need to arrange a safe space for you?

MeanderingMammal

VintageFeline wrote: »

But I'm the UK with the NHS, she doesn't care about losing my business because healthcare isn't for profit.

Although it's worth noting, for the benefit of the international audience that the GPs surgery is a privately owned body that sells services to the health service. The practice is paid based on the number of patients that they support, rather than per consultation.

If the GP is an equity partner in the practice that's somewhat different to being a salary partner.

All that said, in my experience my weight was mentioned as a contributor to high blood pressure. I've never been excessively heavy though, just mid range overweight. I'm quite fortunate that my current GP does contextualise in terms of healthy lifestyle, but that's very much in line with current guidance from Department of Health, which recognises at a policy level that prevention is more cost effective than treatment. It doesn't follow through into effective action though, but that's a more systemic issue.

T1DCarnivoreRunner

No, my doctor didn't suggest I lose weight. But when I brought it up, he has always at least made an effort to help me figure out what I need to do. More recently, he has started to tell me I don't have much more to lose (I know - it is just a few vanity lbs.); but when I have a more specific issue, he still tries to figure it out.

singingflutelady

Need2Exerc1se wrote: »

TeacupsAndToning wrote: »

Need2Exerc1se wrote: »

TeacupsAndToning wrote: »

Katiebear_81 wrote: »

The only doctor who mentioned my weight was my OB/GYN. I was seeing her for a prolapsed uterus. She mentioned that if I lost a bit of weight, the symptoms might be less pronounced. She also told me (when I was pregnant) that I needed to be more careful with how much I was gaining, however conceded that I was retaining a lot of water so as long as my test results continued to be good (they were), she wouldn't require me to diet/restrict calories.

My regular doctor remarked that she noticed that I had lost weight when I had dropped around 50 lbs (from 180 to 130), but I've mostly been in the "overweight" section of the chart, and not obese, so I think they don't say as much.

I'm in Canada, where doctors are also hard to get in to, so they're not worried about loss of income.

Aren't our doctors paid by the Government? Then it wouldn't matter at all if they lost a patient who got offended because that patient causes no effect on their income.

Are they paid a flat salary regardless of number of patients?

I just googled and I think it depends on where they work, but a lot of doctors are actually government employees and they're paid on salary, I believe. So in those cases, number of patients wouldn't matter.

Interesting (I'm in the US). I could see pros and cons to this. More incentive to keep you healthy so they only need to see you for checkups. But I wonder if it also might keep some doctors from taking new patients or targeting patients with more illness since seeing more patients or more visits doesn't generate more income.

I live in Canada in a place with a doctor shortage problem (doctors make significantly less money here) and there is not a single doctor that isn't overloaded with patients. Their patient load is insane.

twinkles4

No, He never brought it up when I was obese, but jumped at the chance to help me when I expressed interest in change.

Husband and I have the same doctor and oddly enough, GP brings up husbands weight at every appointment. He is always bringing home pamphlets on heart health, proper eating and offers to set him up with a dietitian appointment.

I assumed it was because they are both male and therefore more comfortable talking about it?

NadNight

The only time it had been mentioned is when my weight dropped between visits (these were 6 months apart mind so it wasn't like a massive amount in a few weeks) and she told me to be careful not to lose more