Your doctor says you're obese!

In reading through some of the responses here, I can't help but think that doctors are damned if they do, damned if they don't. Some like the direct approach, others don't. Maybe people should, if/when they can, choose a doctor that "clicks" with them.

I wish my old doctor told me I was obese. I had to find out the hard way when I was curious about my BMI. Now I've worked my booty off (literally ) to get to overweight. I told my new doctor to never, ever sugar coat anything that may threaten my health after my experiences with past doctors. If my lifestyle will threaten my future TELL ME!! Some people want to live in denial and that's their prerogative. I prefer being in shape, not gasping for breath at the top of one flight of stairs. :drinker:

I imagine that the people who do get offended by this are not on this site. Those who get offended aren't ready to change yet.

Not True! I was offended when my doctor told me i was obese. Mainly because I looked in the mirror and knew I was overweight, fat .... but not obese, it did upset me, more so as my doctor didnt tell me my bmi, and so I figured it out for myself, and I was only one notch into obesity ... so a fine line between over weight and obese, I think my doctor should of explained this all a bit better for me.

needless to say a few weeks later I was planning a new healthy me, but fell drastically ill with Meningitis and encephalitis. It knocked me for six and I was very very ill!! Since recovering ( which took months) I had this new sense of being, of life in me, and wanted to live a happy healthy life. So I started my journey on MFP with the up-most amount of Gusto! two months in and still as determined as ever. And truthfully I still feel a tad annoyed at how my doctor handed the situation esp as he started asking me about my diet, and I told him. he thought i was lieing as it was all very healthy! surely I must be a secret eater or have insanely large portions is what he was insinuating. Instead of stopping to think perhaps i under eat and have messed up my metabloisim! Which is the case with me. This is not a diet it is a change of life.

That should not come as a surprise to anyone. It should be as evident as skin color.

I think It would be good if the medical profession came clean about "diet". Things which can have a bearing on some people being unable to take control of their "diet" because the approved "good" food is making them ill. Specifically those foods heavy in Salicylate. This is the mechanism some plants use to protect themselves from moulds and mildews which is also toxic to some people. I am fortunate now that I have found the information on my computer which helps me have a good life.

To achieve this I have had to severely restrict many of the foods we take for granted in our modern lives. I have seen it here, People looking for the the pill to prevent them gaining weight when for some the answer could be to stop eating toxic food. At my worst I was 20 stone and 5ft 4 if I stretch upwards. Over 10 years as I have learned. I have become free of joint pain, excessive fluid retention, bladder issues, endless bouts of sickness and associated problems, with the exception of my fury at the "Holier than though" attitude of some people who know no better, my mental health is much more even than previously, and I have overcome the addictive power of salicylate . My biggest bonus came when I regained my lung function. .

I have given up tea, coffee, herbs spices,many vegetables and fruit dried fruit, I still dream of Christmas cake!! I cant take I have given up conventional cleaning products, tooth paste and shower gels. I can't take vanilla, in anything, I don't got to large gatherings because You have the right to pollute the wider environment with your cleaning products, personal perfumes, everything must have a smell it can't be clean without smelling.

I am an ordinary person in my 60's wanting the rest of my life to be full of activity. Only three more stone to go and that is why I am here. I want to climb that actual mountain or walk unaided in the some bleak wilderness.

IF MY RANT HELPS ONE OTHER PERSON on this list IT WOULD MAKE ME THE HAPPIEST PERSON ALIVE. I truly hope no one else's experience mirrors mine.

If I'm not mistaken "obese" IS the actual medical term. It does imply a certain level of being overweight. Quite frankly I don't get offended when I'm called obese. Or fat. Or lard-butt... because I talk about it openly and quite often joke about it myself. Last time I went to the doctor I went in for a skin infection. The doctor essentially said "ok, here's some antibiotics.... now let's talk about your weight and your blood pressure.". I was put on blood pressure meds at the age of 27, which was probably a larger eye-opener than my actual weight

Sometimes hearing you're running to the grave is difficult to deal with, but your doctor doesn't say it because he/she likes offending you. You're doctor says it because you need to hear it.. because it's true

Ive never been called obese by my doctor but I know I am. Every obese/over weight person KNOWS. Suck it up and do something about it! If you were happy with your life and not ashamed and didn't care- you wouldnt be offended in the first place. Its your doctors job to help keep/get you healthy. They arent out of line to suggest you lose some weight or to tell you that yes, you ARE fat! And they aren't just being rude for the heck of it! So take it as its intended for, and move on!

Well, sometimes the truth hurts. If you didn't already know it, who better than your dr. to enlighten you?
It may hurt your feelings, but you can not change the fact and if you do not like bluntness in a dr, find a new one that will sugar coat it for you, or do something about it, and lose the weight and become not obese.

Going to my Dr actually helped me. I knew I was over weight, and needed to lose weight. I just didn't know how over weight I was. While her telling me that I was obese was tough to grasp, I wasn't angry or mad at her. My question to myself was "How in the world did you let yourself get like this? How did you not know you were this big?" The best thing she could have ever said to me was when she called a few days later. "You are pre-diabetic. If you don't lose some weight, and start eating healthy you will become a diabetic. I am referring you to a nutritionist." At that moment I cried.... At that moment I decided that I had to do this. At that moment my lifestyle changed forever! Was I mad at the Dr? No. Why should I be?
I hadn't been to the Dr for a routine check up in years. I hadn't taken care of myself. I was to busy to take care of myself. So, with that being said.... It wasn't anyone's fault but my own.

This is so interesting. My doctor is very tactful yet blunt with me. But I have a lot is issues she has to help me deal with, obesity is not the biggest one. But she would bring up my weight everytime I saw her, except when I was suicidal. She would say things like "at some point we need to discuss your weight and come up with a plan", like we are a team. Very supportive. Knowing me, she also knew I wouldn't do anything until I was ready but she always kept it as one of her priorities for me. Now that I be filled her in on all that I'm doing to lose weight we are working together and she's closely tracking my progress. Its great to have a medical professional in your corner. Oh, and she absolutely loves my approach of eating better and lots of activity.

Um, maybe we all wouldn't be overweight/obese, whatever, if we all didn't try to freshen up what we're really trying to say (don't get me wrong - I don't mean people should be saying things in a hateful manner). Maybe we really need to hear those words no matter that we may feel hurt by them. I've had people say things to me and it pushed me to determination. I've also had doctors that weren't interested in helping me at all and I felt defeated! I'd rather try than not try.


People don't tell us things so as not to hurt us and look where it go us all - here, trying desperately to regain our lives and health. It always makes me think of the story "The Emperor's New Clothes" by Hans Christian Anderson.

Personally I have been pretty upset with doctors who have told me my weight was "not" a problem, especially after I specifically would say to them "well I really should lose weight".

Over the past few years I've wanted doctors to say more, like "you realize, your health will really suffer as you age if you remain at this weight" or "do you know what the dangers are for a woman your age at your weight?" SOMETHING!

Isn't it a doctor's responsibility to inform their patients of looming health issues, especially ones so obvious!?

I knew I was obese before my doc mentioned it. If someone is really obese and only gets clued in when the doc states the fact, they're kidding themselves.

I think that I KNEW i was fat and i KNEW i was very overweight, but somehow the word "obese" (in my mind) applied to those really really obese women we saw in disney world who could barely move and had layers and layers of fat all over. That just wasn't ME. I was fat, yes, but I went to the gym, i ate healthy foods, i was active. so i didn't put the two together. One day i saw the word "OBESE" on a blood test paper - and i thougth "what? me?"

I think it's the doctors responsibility to state the facts, just like "you tested positive for strep here's the antibiotics", so there is "you are obese AND HERE IS WHAT WE CAN DO ABOUT IT".

I am SO sick of this!!!! Being obese is NEVER healthy. It is ALWAYS bad. Why do people want to make it about ANYYHING other than that??
I had a great doctor. The sweetest lady ever. And she never once brought up my MORBID OBESITY. Maybe if she had, I would have dropped the weight 7 or 8 years sooner, maybe not. But, it's a health professional's JOB to help us become healthy.
I can tell you if she had said I was obese, I would have been upset and I may have focused that anger/hurt on her. But that would have been MY error, NOT HERS!

People aren't really hurt that someone says they're obese. They're upset because they ARE obese and they can no longer live with their heads in the sand.

It's easier to get offended and complain about the "cruel" or "unfair" treatment than it is to get off your rear, so to speak, and get healthy. Anyone CAN turn their lives around...don't be offended. Be committed to changing your life:)

I really don't get it either. If you're fat, you know you're fat. If you think that everyone else doesn't know you're fat, then you're delusional. It is also why I don't understand why people, women especially, are so afraid of telling people their weight. It isn't like the number is going to make someone look at you differently.