Doctor's advice doesn't seem right...

M.D.s have very little training in nutrition. If what you're doing is working and sustainable for you, I say stick with it!

M.D.s have very little training in nutrition. If what you're doing is working and sustainable for you, I say stick with it!

^ This. It's ridiculous how little they know. I told mine I was a vegetarian and they tried to talk me out of it and gave me a pamphlet for the food pyramid. Insane!

I've worked in the medical field for 5 years and that's enough time to know that medical doctors DO NOT understand nutrition. Please, trust me, unless your doctor is a specialist in nutrition or weight maintenance, this person is simply human just like the rest of us on this message board.

I'd trust a nutritionist or dietician over a medical doctor when it comes to weight loss strategies. It's all about the knowledge they've gained from repeated experiences helping people with these issues.

The best thing your doctor could do is give you a valid referral to a good nutritionist or dietician to help you along your journey, if you need help.

Doctors have what is known as a "PRACTICE " because that's what they are doing. Anyone that is involved in weight loss for any length of time will tell you to never go below 1200 calories a day or you will loose weight but also muscles. My doctor, who I see every 4 months , told me to stay at 1200 the last time I say him and to never go under. Fruits and veggies are like everything else, in moderation.

and my Dr told me I must eat breakfast and that I must eat several times a day to keep my metabolism going in order to lose weight. I actually do better when I don't eat early in the day. After I lost a bunch while often waiting until mid-afternoon to eat, she started asking me what I was doing, so that she could better help her other patients.

As someone else said, general practitioners have very little education in nutrition. My sister is a GP, and she will be the first to admit that she doesn't have extensive knowledge of everything health related.

What do you call the person who graduates at the bottom of his/her medical school class?

"Doctor."

Find another doctor. I'm pretty damn picky about who I take advice from and if their advice doesn't match up to my understanding in areas that I'm comfortable with what I know, I start to question their expertise in areas I don't. Trust is vital when it comes to experts.

^^^This!!!

Ok I agree that maybe you need a new doctor - here is my story of when I realized that doctors aren't always correct (not weight related but gets my point across).

For years I had horrible stomach pains and my doctor kept wanting to say it was an ulcer. Did an upper GI - nothing - took meds - nothing, still had problems (so bad I thought I was having a heart attack at times, and I was in my 20's). Finally I mentioned it to a friend at work who was a nurse (she worked part time in the shop I worked in) and she said "it sounds like your gallbladder - you should ask about that" so I did and my doctor said there was absolutely no way it could possibly be my gallbladder because of my age, no kids, no way, won't check for it, totally wrong, never could be that. So she sent me to a gastroenterologist and I told him what she said, and he said, well, I disagree with her, so lets check - and it turned out it was my gallbladder, full of stones, and I needed to get it taken care of asap. So that is the day I figured out that not all doctors are good and that sometimes they aren't doing things in your best interest - luckily for me the doctor she sent me to was good and did listen. That is when I decided to find a new doctor (they called to say I had to have surgery from her office and I told them off something fierce). I asked around and found a good doctor that had good recommendations from people I knew and that is when I found my previous doctor (who retired) and then my current doctor, who listens to me and makes recommendations that are good and make sense.

To me, it sounds like your doctor is like my old doctor - trying to use a one size fits all option. You need a doctor who will listen to you (you are making progress which is awesome - why change what is working) and make recommendations based on what is good for you. I always question when someone says to avoid a whole group of foods, but especially fruit - fruit is awesome! Unless you have a specific medical condition that is a reason to avoid it (and if that is the case your doctor should have mentioned that) it is just not reasonable. You need to have a lifestyle change, not a temporary fix. Cutting stuff out (again, unless there is a medical reason) sounds like a temporary fix to me.

I went to the doctor yesterday for a physical, and the visit basically turned into a weight loss consultation. I told her what I've been doing and that I've lost almost five pounds in the past month (I'm at 166, trying to get down to 140).

Despite my "success" she gave me a series of guidelines that I HAVE to follow or I will "NOT" lose weight. The primary one being that I should only eat 1000 calories per day, absolutely NEVER going over 1200...

I'm currently set at 1380 per day by MFP and it seems to be working just fine. The doctor also told me that I should eat very little fruit and carbs because of the sugar (which in and of itself is an issue because I'm a vegetarian/almost vegan and eat a lot of fruit and whole grains).

She's a medical doctor, so I feel like I should listen to what she says, but it seems crazy and impossible to follow. Am I being stubborn?

I wonder if the advice to eat 1000 was because maybe you told her you weren't happy with your 5 lbs. loss in a month at 1380? Because 5 lbs. in their first month makes a lot of people disappointed, especially at 1380. She might figure you're overestimating intake and subtracting from your 1380 value to speed up your losses, like someone else mentioned.

The fruit sugar thing--- Do you have issues with sugar? Prediabetes or anything? Did you tell her 1380 is hard to limit yourself to? Because adding more protein and fat and less sugar might help with that.

I don't know, it just seems like usually there's a lot of things that were probably said over a whole appointment and maybe it wasn't all out of the blue. Maybe it was, though. Once an ob/gyn (that was a fabulous doctor who'd been practicing for decades) told me low carb was the only way.

The thing to remember is, doctors only have to take an alarmingly small amount of schooling in nutrition to earn their degree. It's sort of like asking a lawnmower guy advice on how to take apart a carburetor on a mustang. They may have a vague idea, but than again it's not their specialty, so what the hell would he know? Talk to a registered dietitian, they'll have a much better idea of what they're talking about, and how to help you. You were right to trust your gut.

Most doctors don't get a lot of training in nutrition or weight loss. They really don't understand the mechanics of it much better than the rest of us. So what this doctor is doing is pretty much what a lot of us would do....going by anecdotal or popular culture stories and somewhat outdated information.
I think sticking with something that works...like MFP...is the way to go UNLESS there is a specific medical issue that would require adjustment...like diabetes or another metabolic issue. So...stick with what you're doing...lose the weight..and when you check back with your doctor in a few months, educate him or her about MFP, so they can help the next patient do things the right way.