Morbidly Obese doctors

daffodilsoup

All I see in this post are excuses - everyone's busy, it's about making the time to at least make healthy meals for yourself, or log your junk food into MFP to stay under your calorie goal.

Excuses to whom? She's not answerable to you for her own health. Just explaining how it can happen. Makes sense to me - I have doctor friends, and friends at med school, and it is a lot more intense and stressful than most other courses. When you're juggling long hours of very intense study and work, plus lack of sleep (which makes it a lot harder to lose weight), and you are training to be a doctor, of course your major priority is going to be to complete your assignments, pass your exams, basically stay on the course and not fail and not get kicked out.

Sure, a super-organised, highly-intelligent person with a very quick memory for learning new facts and a very high stamina and stress tolerance could manage to still have 8 hours sleep every night and make healthy meals each day. But realistically, that's unlikely to happen for most. I actually considered med school myself, and decided against it because I knew I wouldn't be able to handle the long hours and intense workload and stay sane! Potential weight gain didn't even factor into my thinking!

I never said she had to answer to me for her health - whether she's healthy or not is none of my business.

She sets it up as though doctors (or anyone with a demanding job, really) have no choice but to gain weight, to eat the donuts, pizzas or other junk people bring in. No one forces doctors, nurses, lawyers, teachers, anyone with a demanding schedule and constant exposure to food, to eat it.

"If you have kids, forget it...plan on mac and cheese at 8pm at night because that's when you get off on call duties." To me this just sounds like someone accepting obesity as fate. Eventually, you have to figure out how to make it work.

All I'm saying is, people everywhere are busy, juggling school, work, a family, whatever life happens to throw at them. But all I'm saying is, being busy isn't an excuse - not to me, but for their own health.

opuntia

I never said she had to answer to me for her health - whether she's healthy or not is none of my business.

Okay. I guess when people say someone is making excuses, it always sounds to me like they are expecting the person to be answerable to them. For instance, if I am explaining to someone how something has happened, to me it can only be an excuse if I am answerable to that person and expecting them to let me off some punishment or judgement. Otherwise it's just an explanation, to give people greater understanding of the topic in question. It could potentially be an excuse to myself, but then that would be my business, and I wouldn't see myself as answerable to people for excuses I make to myself.

My understanding of the post was that the poster was simply explaining how it's very easy to gain weight while at med school. She said she was fighting hard to set a good example to her clients, so that didn't look to me like someone who had sat back and accepted a fate of eating junk food forever.

ChgingMe

Whoa. Slow your role. NO ONE is judging you. I personally have a morbidly obese doc. I've been going to for years. Its my personal observation. I'm also sure she struggles as we all do. You seem a bit on edge about yourself. Calm down. This is NO reflection on you. Stop making it one.

You said it yourself that you find it disturbing your doctor is overweight. Now you're saying, "Oh, I'm sure she struggles..." Pick a side.

I'm not making it about me. My point is that nobody truly knows anyone else, and I was addressing all of the judgmental people in this thread who assume their doctor is just some gross cow who doesn't apply their medical knowledge. "Would you go to an obese doctor" opened a huge can of worms. You knew what you were doing when you started the thread, so don't play innocent and pass this off as "the poor, sensitive fatty is taking this personally". You're damn right I am. You have ten pounds to lose. Do you have any idea what it's like to be over 300 pounds? If not, shut your trap, because you have NO idea how to walk in those shoes.

Wow defensive much. Get over it. let me clairfy for you. I personally don't agree with an obese doc telling me I need to get in shape. As mine did. I do however understand that hey I guess she does stuggle, like we all do. But that doesnt negate the fact that she is telling me something she cant seem to accomplish on her own. As for the 10 pounds to lose. You have no idea how much I lost prior to joing MFP do you? How do you know I didnt start at over 300 pounds. You have no idea about me. And I started this thread for no other reason than to get feedback from others. Again I say you are way too sensative. If it bothers you so much why did you even comment on this thread??

daffodilsoup

I never said she had to answer to me for her health - whether she's healthy or not is none of my business.

Okay. I guess when people say someone is making excuses, it always sounds to me like they are expecting the person to be answerable to them. For instance, if I am explaining to someone how something has happened, to me it can only be an excuse if I am answerable to that person and expecting them to let me off some punishment or judgement. Otherwise it's just an explanation, to give people greater understanding of the topic in question. It could potentially be an excuse to myself, but then that would be my business, and I wouldn't see myself as answerable to people for excuses I make to myself.

My understanding of the post was that the poster was simply explaining how it's very easy to gain weight while at med school. She said she was fighting hard to set a good example to her clients, so that didn't look to me like someone who had sat back and accepted a fate of eating junk food forever.

I definitely didn't mean to come off as she had to be somehow accountable to me, so my bad if it sounded like that. I don't see excuses as something to be answerable to me, I see excuses as someone's reasoning to "I can't do this because ______".

For what it's worth, I do know where that poster is coming from - I'm balancing a job and going back to school to become a nurse, so I absolutely understand that having a demanding schedule certainly makes it difficult to stick to fitness goals.

I guess the post just rubbed me the wrong way, probably from seeing so many forum posts along the lines of "I don't have time to ____". It's definitely a look into a reason why so many doctors may be overweight, it just doesn't justify it to me, is all.

beckajw

I never said she had to answer to me for her health - whether she's healthy or not is none of my business.

Okay. I guess when people say someone is making excuses, it always sounds to me like they are expecting the person to be answerable to them. For instance, if I am explaining to someone how something has happened, to me it can only be an excuse if I am answerable to that person and expecting them to let me off some punishment or judgement. Otherwise it's just an explanation, to give people greater understanding of the topic in question. It could potentially be an excuse to myself, but then that would be my business, and I wouldn't see myself as answerable to people for excuses I make to myself.

My understanding of the post was that the poster was simply explaining how it's very easy to gain weight while at med school. She said she was fighting hard to set a good example to her clients, so that didn't look to me like someone who had sat back and accepted a fate of eating junk food forever.

I definitely didn't mean to come off as she had to be somehow accountable to me, so my bad if it sounded like that. I don't see excuses as something to be answerable to me, I see excuses as someone's reasoning to "I can't do this because ______".

For what it's worth, I do know where that poster is coming from - I'm balancing a job and going back to school to become a nurse, so I absolutely understand that having a demanding schedule certainly makes it difficult to stick to fitness goals.

I guess the post just rubbed me the wrong way, probably from seeing so many forum posts along the lines of "I don't have time to ____". It's definitely a look into a reason why so many doctors may be overweight, it just doesn't justify it to me, is all.

Med school is a lot of work and a lot of time. It's different than working and going to school. It's different from really anything you can imagine.

daffodilsoup

I never said she had to answer to me for her health - whether she's healthy or not is none of my business.

Okay. I guess when people say someone is making excuses, it always sounds to me like they are expecting the person to be answerable to them. For instance, if I am explaining to someone how something has happened, to me it can only be an excuse if I am answerable to that person and expecting them to let me off some punishment or judgement. Otherwise it's just an explanation, to give people greater understanding of the topic in question. It could potentially be an excuse to myself, but then that would be my business, and I wouldn't see myself as answerable to people for excuses I make to myself.

My understanding of the post was that the poster was simply explaining how it's very easy to gain weight while at med school. She said she was fighting hard to set a good example to her clients, so that didn't look to me like someone who had sat back and accepted a fate of eating junk food forever.

I definitely didn't mean to come off as she had to be somehow accountable to me, so my bad if it sounded like that. I don't see excuses as something to be answerable to me, I see excuses as someone's reasoning to "I can't do this because ______".

For what it's worth, I do know where that poster is coming from - I'm balancing a job and going back to school to become a nurse, so I absolutely understand that having a demanding schedule certainly makes it difficult to stick to fitness goals.

I guess the post just rubbed me the wrong way, probably from seeing so many forum posts along the lines of "I don't have time to ____". It's definitely a look into a reason why so many doctors may be overweight, it just doesn't justify it to me, is all.

Med school is a lot of work and a lot of time. It's different than working and going to school. It's different from really anything you can imagine.

Okay.

marz42

It is kind of like saying cops never get speeding tickets, construction workers have the best homes, lawyers never get sued, all dentists have perfect teeth and a watchmaker never has a broken watch.

Yes this. And we have no idea of the rest of their life and what else they are going through, how long they've been overweight etc (for the most part). I'd rather have a smart, available,kind doctor that was a bit overweight than a slim mean incompetent one.

I don't object to a doctor telling you you need to loose weight, if you do, well it's part of their job. But I've had a number of them be such total a**holes about it. ..to the point of downright cruel, shaming, nastiness. This almost *never* motivates a person, just makes them avoid the doctor.

Now I've got one who is kind of heavy. She's smaller than me, but definitely plus size. She lost a ton of weight a while back, but then had a kid and gained it back. So ..she knows it's not an easy thing. She's also smart and kind and I always get in pretty quickly, and has never once been nasty and belittling as a couple of slim (and male) doctors I had before. So I go in whenever I need to go.