How did your doctor tell you you're fat??

When my youngest son went to the local public health nurse for his 2 year old shots and check up she said he was on the low average end of height, but a pound overweight and gave me a speech about how I should start keeping an eye on what he is eating, etc blah, blah, blah...a pound overweight!?!?! I was a little stunned to be getting an overweight kid talk for a 2yr old only 1lb overweight and felt a little like she was looking at me and my weight and assuming I fed him a diet of twinkies or something. Nothing was further from the truth as he'd pick broccoli as his treat when allowed to get one from the store. He's now almost an adult and has been slim and trim since he shot out of his toddler days. Seemed bizarre to me...still stands out in my head so many years later.

For myself, I don't recall any issues with my docs and my weight. Have talked about health things related, but never any that said anything about my specific weight that stood out to me.

He told me I was too big for the Tardis.

I recently switched family doctors. Why, you ask? Well, I went in for an unrelated issue - one that still had me wearing the paper gown - and my doctor said to me when she lifted it up "Oh wow, you have a small face but such a big body". Then proceeded to prescribe me weight loss pills (which I never filled the prescription for). Unbe-freakin'-lievable. I am obviously quite aware of the fact that I am 50 - 60 lbs overweight. I found this to be quite rude and made me feel absolutely horrible and ashamed. I'm just wondering how other people's doctors "broke the bad news". Ha

Wow what an *kitten*! My doc never told me, but when I told her my plans to lose weight she said it would be a good idea and wanted to ensure I did it safe.

Several years ago, I weighed 278 pounds and had to have an abdominal surgery -- not the bariatric kind but my size required the bariatric type of bed. One of the surgery nurses wheeled me into the surgery room. As soon as she got behind my bariatric gurney and started pushing me, I apologized to her as she wheeled me down the corridor and into a very cold, cold room. I met the doctor who was in charge of knocking me out and keeping me quiet for the next couple of hours.

“Oh, good you’re bringing me another obese one.” The “knock-out” (also known as the anesthesiologist) doctor said sarcastically as the nurse wheeled me over to the very skinny little operating table. Well, maybe he wasn’t being sarcastic but it certainly sounded that way to me. Yep, the more I think about it, the more I realize that he was dripping with sarcasm.

“Do you think you can move yourself over to this table – or are you too obese to do that?” I would swear there was a touch of disgust mixed with sarcasm in his voice.

“Doctor, is that comment really necessary?” My very kind and wonderful nurse asked as she helped me slide from the bariatric gurney to the table.
I valiantly wiggled, schooched (it’s not a word, but that’s what I felt I was doing), and was eventually able to plop myself onto the surgical table. Yes, there was “hang over” but at least they did NOT have to move two tables together in order to accommodate me and my size.

“Do you realize that you are obese?” The knock-out doctor asked me.

“Doctor,” my wonderful nurse warned again and she patted my arm and then asked if I was comfortable while checking my IV.
Hmmm, I thought. Did I realize I am obese – now that is certainly something to ponder upon? I’m obese? Well, now how-the-heck did that happen? I tried to act surprised as if he had just said something I’d never heard or even realize before. I don’t think acting is really my calling in life.

Here I am 56 years old and have lived with a weight problem for my entire life. Did he really just ask me if I realized that I was obese?

“Yes, I do realize that I am obese.” I somehow managed to say to him as I was trying not to be strangled by the fashionable gown that was somehow tangled around my neck.

“You do understand that your size is going to cause major complications for this surgery – and is probably even the reason you are having surgery today.” this man behind a mask informed me as he held some kind of contraption above my face. “Maybe you should simply stop eating so much when or, should I say, if you wake up.”

He obviously missed the patient sensitivity class when the hospital staff held it recently. And with that being my last thought, he put the contraption over my face and sent me straight into la-la land. Who knows what else he said to me when I wasn’t capable of listening.

Even though I went in for an abdominal surgery, it was not for a bariatric one. I would love to report when I woke up I was 100 pounds thinner but I guess I’ll just have to report that I am extremely thankful that I actually woke up. The dream of going to sleep and waking up 100 pounds lighter was and still is just a dream, after all. Based on how “dangerous” my obesity was for me during surgery, I know a miracle must have taken place.

But am I grateful to that masked man for making it happen? In all honestly – no, I am not grateful to that masked man. I suppose I should be thankful he kept me alive enough for me to be able to think his bedside manner really sucks!

“Did I realize that I was obese?” Yes, Dr. Knock-out, I did, somehow, know that I was obese – and – get this I actually knew this fact even without your words of wisdom informing me of that fact. Geez, did I realize I was obese – really?

But did YOU realize that the person lying on your surgical table was a lady that had so much more going for her than simply a large number on a scale? In your lifetime, Doctor, will you EVER meet a better Lyndal than the one you put under that day? You missed a golden opportunity to find out just how amazing I can be.

Dr. Knock-out, you have a lot of power – more than you might even realize. Going under the knife is a stressful situation – and believe me, I should know. With each surgery, there is always a risk. The words you say to the person on your table will certainly be the last they hear until they wake up. But what if they were the last words they hear while on this earth. What if I died and went to heaven without ever waking up? What if I had to repeat the very last words I heard on this earth to God as I arrived home? What if I had to relate who said them to me?

If the last words I heard before I died were “Maybe you should simply stop eating so much when or, should I say, if you wake up” that would have been a very tragic thing. Whew, that’s heavy – and you know what. For once, when I mention the word heavy, I am not referring to the numbers on a scale!

I am writing a book about my journey (or struggles) with my weight. This very long explanation of when a doctor told me I was fat is an excerpt of that book.

I was 13 years old, finished growing at 4 ft 10.. I weighed 102lbs. Dr. poked my belly during a pre-op exam and said "Too Fat". I am now 143 and considered obese. Working on getting back down to that "too fat" weight of 102.

mine was kind. He just said I was overweight and needed to get my weight down if I wanted to live longer.

My ob/gyn said I didn't need to gain during pregnancy because I was big enough already.

Great job! Real doctors listen to clients

That was Rude!!!!

Ikr? I switched doctors but guess who was there for delivery?

One of my docs (ENT) poked my midriff like I was the Pilsbury dough boy, and said "you should drop some pounds!"
Nice- got the point across,though.

My GP just said my BMI was high, in the obese zone; and given my family history said I should lose weight due to high cholesterol.
So here I am, getting it done

I went to urgent care for a completely non-weight related issue. Someone had accidentally knocked a piece of furniture over onto my foot, breaking it.

The doctor, whom I'd never seen before, entered the room, glanced over at me, his eyes grew as big as his head and his jaw dropped to the floor. He said with shock and disgust, "You are the fattest woman I have ever seen in my entire life!"

I was 5'8" and 201 (two hundred and one... no typo) pounds.

He went on to tell me to stop swilling soda all day and stuffing my fat face with cheeseburgers every chance I get, and to get off my lazy *kitten* at least once a day and move a little.

I don't eat cheeseburgers at all, not that I think other people shouldn't eat them. I'm quite the produce junkie, easily spending half of my grocery budget on fresh fruit and veggies. I have maybe two sugary beverages all year. I almost exclusively drink water, unsweetened tea, and coffee. And despite some pretty big mobility limitations, I'm really very active, even to the point of injuring myself at times, because I don't know how to not push past my physical limits or how to just sit still once in awhile.

When I told him that, he called me a liar so loudly that a nurse passing the exam room could hear him through the closed door, knocked and poked her head in to see if everything was ok.

After about a ten minute tirade about my weight, this doctor who hadn't even bothered to look at my file yet, asked why I was there. After xrays showed a break in my foot, he said if I wasn't such a fat cow, my bones wouldn't break like that.

I told him shaming me was not the solution, but from what I hear, there have been dozens of complaints about his conduct, yet he still has his job and still treats patients with the same disrespect.

I have had my doctor for 15yrs. She looked at me and asked why I weighed 10lbs over my delivery weight with my daughters, and other than pregnant she had never seen me weight above 135lb. She then ran a bunch of tests and said your healthy, so what did you do?

I like blunt people, even when it stings :drinker:

I had a pediatrician tell me "you know it's unhealthy to eat Big Macs for every meal"... when I have not had a Big Mac in my entire life.

My ENDOCRINOLOGIST told me I could afford to skip a few meals...just like that. This was my first visit with her because I relocated...but I found a new one fast! She said some other rude things and even commented on how my eyebrows needed to be waxed lol.. like wth.

I once had a dental hygienist tell me my skin and pimples looked bad and that I should do something about them.

Because I wasn't trying? I was taking a break from topical meds that nearly burned my face off.. and I was a teenager! Come on. Stay in the field, you know?

Like... an aesthetician can tell you you need to wax your eyebrows but I'm PRETTY sure that doesn't affect your health and doctor has no need to mention it?

About six years ago, at age 20 I went to my doctor for a yearly check-up/examine and to be put on birth control. she began discussing my weight and that I could begin taking a prescription diet pill. i wouldn't say at this time she was overly harsh, I weighed in at 228lb being 5'3"... well after she sent out for blood work, and I had to have a follow up visit, she flat out told me my cholesterol was so high she expected me to have a heart attack at 25. the pills worked for a little while, then my body began to get use to them, and they aren't pills you are suppose to be on long term anyways. after about 6 months, I went back wanting to try them again... this time I actually ended up weighing more, around 245lbs. all she said to me was "i will put you back on them but you have way more to lose this time, and if you fail again, i'm going to very strongly suggest you get bariatric surgery."

I lost my insurance through my parents and never ended up going back....

but at the start of this year (5-6 years later at age 25/26) I got insurance again, and went and saw a new doctor. The doctor wasn't even the one to first ask if I was doing anything about my weight...... the nurse did! I wasn't overly offended, because I knew what my weight was, and by that point (nearly 3 months into the year) I had already lost 22lbs. Since it had been so long, this doctor did a full check-up, including blood work. Funny thing is, she told me everything came back pretty normal, and nothing alarming. Even my cholesterol, which my previous doctor said would cause me to have a heart attack at 25, was at normal levels! Weighing MORE then I did 6 years ago! Odd how that worked out... they did offer to put me on diet pills, but between the cost (my insurance doesn't cover it) and the reminder of the effects of the ones I had been on before (which pretty much made me starve myself and I feel contributed to putting on more weight then before)... I kindly turned her down and told her I was just going to take things slow and make it a life style change...