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Does your doctor comment on your weight?
Replies
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The majority of my doctors have always tried to tell me I was perfect and had nothing wrong with me, even when I was obese and had lupus, asthma, diabetes, and a giant honking softball sized ovarian tumor. I am not a fan of the medical profession. I had an ER doctor try to put me on opiates and just send me home with an actual ovarian torsion, with my ovary literally dead and rotting inside me. I only got anyone to pay attention when I told him I would kill myself if he sent me home in that much pain. That worked surprisingly quickly. I had the hospital administrator in my room in about ten minutes.
I live in one of the fattest cities in America, and I tend to carry my weight pretty well, so I guess my doctors have seen people so much fatter than I am that it wasn't even on their radar. My ob/gyn said, "You're about 200 pounds, right?" when I weighed 272. The advice I got about my diabetes was pretty basic, too, I think the nutritionist at the hospital was used to people who just would not make any sort of effort so she had mostly given up. I had to educate myself.
I'm down 94 lbs presently and everyone has expressed astonishment.29 -
My orthopedic specialist referred to me as "well nourished " as he recorded his notes. I thought it was funny. I weighed about 310 at the time.
My PCP was always tactful and shuttered genuine concern. Eventually I became a patient she used as an example of it never being too late to change.
No more worries about high cholesterol or borderline A1C.11 -
When I developed an obesity-related complication (chronic venous insufficiency, aka 'veins in legs collapsed under the weight of the rest of me' which led to a bout of cellulitus, followed by lymphedema—complete with a weeping wound that needed daily dressing changes and multiple doses of antibiotics before it healed up some three months later and has stuck me in compression stockings for the foreseeable future), my doctor was pretty up-front about telling me that if I lost weight, I could minimize future flare-ups. That was last year. I've had two checkups since starting MFP and now his comments are pretty positive. Even effusive. Dropping 80 lbs (slightly less than 1/3 of my SW) tends to do that...14
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It probably depends where you live. My experience in Asia and Europe shows that doctors would talk about weight. I know that from my family members that are a bit overweight n the doc recommends to loose. One of my family members that is obese had this topic discussed with several doctors n I think its the doctors responsibility to do so.2
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I once had One Of Those Doctors who insisted that everything wrong with me was because of my weight. I started restricting myself to under 1,000 calories per day (measured for accuracy) and found myself still gaining weight. Talked to him - he put me on appetite suppressants instead of trying to get to the bottom of it.
About a year later I started seeing a different doctor, who found out my metabolism was *kitten* up (obviously) from years of dealing with undiagnosed celiac disease. Adding insult to injury, my weight was the only atypical symptom; everything else pointed to it like a neon sign.
My body behaves a lot more normally now, I'm down 100 pounds, and almost every problem I saw him for is gone. My current PCP doesn't talk about my weight except when I have a concern relating to it - and I have a much easier time staying healthy now.
What a lot of weight-obsessed doctors fail to realize is that the majority of the time, weight is a symptom of a problem, not the cause. Sure, a lot of the time the cause of whatever other concern a patient is there for is, in fact, a nutritional issue, and their weight is another symptom of that...but when a patient comes in telling you they're measuring what they eat and taking in less than 1000 calories per day and gaining, you MIGHT want to look into a cause other than overeating.21 -
When I was a child around 8-11 years old (already overweight but unusually tall for my age, too) my pediatrician harped on my weight nonstop and in a very cruel way and actually made fun of me. When I was sick with chronic bronchitis he would make the entire visit all about my weight. My parents would have to do serious damage control after every doc visit because I'd be so upset. Why they didn't find a new freaking doctor, I have no idea. I was taken to a nutritionist and she was far less "concerned" than my pediatrician. But the comments stuck and made me borderline terrified of doctors for many, many years. Even to this day I'm extra nervous in any type of medical situation.
But to answer the Q more directly...when I was morbidly obese, ranging from 260 to 300 lb (5'8" female), most of my doctors expressed surprise and/or praise at my overall good blood work and vitals, and then proceeded to suggest weight loss of "10% of body weight" or "30 lb" as a good start for me and overall suggestion to become healthier. I took it really seriously, but did not usually lose more than 10-15 lb and usually regained sooner or later.
With my last physician before my major weight loss, he suggested a 30 lb loss from the 270-something I weighed at the time, and told me he didn't think I'd be a good candidate for gastric bypass because I was walking miles per week and eating healthier and had dropped about 14 lb in the past year. I was shocked, because I went to the appointment thinking I would probably be headed the WLS route. It actually made me feel really positive and hopeful about my healthier path, and that physician retired and moved to another state but I feel like his approach was great for me and I sometimes wish in the back of my head that he could see me at a healthy weight now!12 -
Last time I saw my neurologist (yes, my NEUROLOGIST!) I told him three times that he had to tell me to lose some weight before he told me to lose some weight. I've known I could lose 50-75 pounds for YEARS and I finally talked with my neurologist because he's the only doctor I see with any regularity.
He's going to be shocked next time I see him -- I've lost almost 30 pounds and still dropping.
I'm 63 years old, 5' 11" tall and today I weigh 217 pounds.13 -
Well the last nurse practitioner I saw asked if I would "like to see the nutritionist?" I did not bring up my weight, I was there for plantar fasciitis.
I would have liked her to read the notes for the past 3 months that I had been in to the MD monthly regarding my weight and had lost 30 lbs.7 -
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.
I understand what your doctor was saying, but she also isn't doing her job.
My doctor didn't suggest I lose weight, but he said I was at high risk of a heart attack or stroke and wanted to put me on meds for high cholesterol and high blood pressure. That woke me up fast. I lost the weight. Then he piled on the praise. He's overweight himself and so are half the nurses.0 -
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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.
Her reply does make sense. Weigh is not typically mentioned by my doctor but it was on my annual last month but only because it was the same down to the ounce as last year.3 -
I was in two car accidents in the same year and as a result of the injuries, not being able to physically do as much, and the medication I put on a lot of weight. The medication was a lot to do with it. putting on two kilos a week and barely eating anything. When I was able to reduce the medication, I couldn't lose the weight no matter how hard I tried, and it's not like I was a stranger to that. I'd previously lost 20 kilos before the accidents. Doctor pretty much didn't believe me and just said "exercise more". The next time I mentioned my weight he said I should get gastric sleeve surgery. I said there's no way I can afford that I'm a student. He told me to go on health insurance and then wait the 1 year waiting period and get the surgery. He pretty much said if I wasn't going to get the surgery there's nothing more he can say except exercise.
I mentioned this to a different doctor (no I didn't just go to another doctor, I have different doctors for my injuries and my crohn's disease) and given her the backstory and she was gobsmacked. I've worked with her to reset myself after the massive amounts of medication I was taking for the injuries and have been able to reduce them further as well as lose 12 kilos so far.
I talked to someone else who saw the same doctor I used to see and was told that he recommended sleeve surgery to her as well. Makes me wonder if he gets commission from his recommendations because according to him, there's no other option than the surgery >:(6 -
Yes and no. one doc said something when I had my allergies tested. But she quickly moved away from the subject when she found that in fact I was already going in the right direction at that stage. Plus she also noted that I had just returned from most gluttonous wonderful over the top 6-week holiday that had me gain a lot of weight. We lived and ate over the top then - never again
My mothers intestinal specialist told her at one stage; ' nothing wrong with you, you just too fat'. This was two weeks after I had told her that her weight concerned me greatly and that I thought that losing weight would solve at least 50% of her health issues. As I had lost quite a bit of weight by that stage and my heath had improved significantly she for once believed it. When she told me I convinced her to see a registered dietician and not to go with er go-to quack diet book written by a money spinning journalist or otherwise not qualified person touting some idiotic fantasy of silver bullet proof eureka moment (you can see I love those).
She followed through and has lost over 20kg. Now convinced her that she need to continue with the dietician as she needs needs that control behind her. But seeing her buy stuff that actually looks good on her now instead of 'well it fits' is great10 -
Yes, and no I was not offended, I was aware of the issue already, though, and was already working on weight loss. We had a nice chat about it. She always does comment -- she considers it part of her responsibility as a doctor.3
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My doctor said she doesn't believe in diets, that they don't work, which I agree with, but if I could lose even 20 lbs it would be much better for me. I haven't seen her since I lost 69 lbs so I think she'll be pleased with that.5
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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. I grew up in Texas around A holes. You didn't get offended or run crying to mommy, you learned to laugh and dish it back out. This generation disgusts me with their weakness. It's one thing to be hateful and purposefully hurtful.. That's bullying. That's wrong. But this nonsense of crying because someone kindly tells you they are worried about your health and they have ideas on how to help you lose weight? Or offended by grandad sending a funny pic to mom of her baby in a roaster because she texts every 10 minutes to check on them? Well, only the strong survive so I suppose those people will hang themselves soon enough. Whoops, that was offensive. My bad.20
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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.10 -
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.
..and yet, just as uncommon where I live.3 -
My doctor does, but I started seeing her at the same time I started losing so my progress has always been part of each visit. When I had a setback last year, she commented but it was encouraging, not hectoring. She is my biggest cheerleader.
My previous doctor would mention it but sort of in passing. I went to a gyn one time who started lecturing me. I stopped him with "Excuse me, have you even looked at my medical history? If you had, you would see I have lost over 50 lb in the last few months". Never went back to him, not because of the lecturing but because he never paid attention to things he should have.3 -
cmriverside 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.
..and yet, just as uncommon where I live.
Point is, we cannot generalize or assert -- as the prior poster did -- that doctors in general don't raise the issue because of "easily offended mouth breathers."
If you think your doctor is not doing his or her job, talk to the doctor or change doctors.
I think doctors SHOULD talk to patients about weight and also see no reason to think that on average in the US it does not happen or happens less than it used to.6
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