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Does your doctor comment on your weight?
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My Dr is amazing...she gives me motivation, tips to try for eating/exercise, and is always encouraging whether I am gaining or losing. Ironically, I started seeing her before meeting my wife and I was like wow, this Dr is such an awesome person. Then I met my wife, and found out my Dr is one of her best friends...go figure!!4
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Yes. When I was at a BMI of 30 she asked if I was going to cut soon as I had some "mild abdominal obesity" going on. I guess that was medical jargon for "... hey, you're getting fat". She does understand cutting/bulking. We've discussed it as she noted at one time my abnormal up and down extreme fluctuation in my weight. I don't think she necessarily approves but she understands why I do it. I have to see her every 6 months for a medical condition she's monitoring so fairly regular physicals.1
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I have had my family practitioner and a PT tell me that losing weight would be good for my health. I was not offended and took their advice. After finding MFP I became successful at losing.2
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Maybe I’m in denial, but 57 is middle age! lol3
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It was really weird. When I was working we had a company doctor who told me the first time he saw me, I should lose 30 pounds. I looked at him askance. Back then I was 6'1", and weighed 160. Ya want me to be 130 at that height??? The last time he saw me before he retired (I hope he was forcibly retired) I was still the same height but weighed about 205ish - I was told I should lose 30 pounds. As if he had some sort of script to follow. She's TALL. Make her lose 30, no matter what...
(Actually, when I graduated college I weighed between 145-150 pounds, due to menstrual problems that eventually led to a hysterectomy at age 31 whether justified or not. Even at that height I was eating my parents (and then myself when I left to be on my own) out of house and home... except for the 8-10 days every 25 days I could barely eat a bite due to menstrual pain... Even today my self-image is skinny, though this is no longer truly so.)3 -
I think as long as it’s relevant to why you are seeking help it shouldn’t be a problem. I’ve had doctors completely dismiss me and tell me to lose weight instead of actually addressing why I was seeking treatment which allowed a disease I had that was undiagnosed to progress and damage my organs and cause cancer and require multiple surgeries because apparently “lose some weight” is the answer to severe and persistent abdominal and pelvic pain. I weighed about 145 at 5’6” when I first developed symptoms and was first told to lose some weight.
So I have no issues with a doctor talking about needing to lose weight to be in better health but there are plenty of people out their that experience a physician not seeing past their weight and actually managing a health condition appropriately. Losing weight is not a cure all for all medical conditions and if you have a disease or condition that requires something other than weight loss it should be appropriately addressed.2 -
The only time I've been offended was when they were blatantly in a worse place than myself weight wise.
I've had to have my birth control changed due to where I sit on that blasted bmi chart, which I don't mind as this one suits me better, but I do get frustrated when the go to cure for anything is you need to loose weight. I've got around this somewhat recently by turning up in my gym gear as that's where I've been heading, it just seems to make them acknowledge that I am trying to shift some fat and I'm actually pretty muscular1 -
Yes because one of the side effects of the medicine I am on is weight gain. She measures me monthly but lets me comment on it. After gaining recently, I am now on a dose where I can lose weight!1
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All the time but at least they are nice about it!1
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Yes, my doctor does comment that I am too heavy. He is right, so what can I say. He is nice about it, though. That is why I am here on MFP. Other than my weight I am pretty healthy for my age. My younger co-workers have so many health struggles. I have not taken a sick day since I started my position 3 years ago, except for one day I did use a sick day for a test my doctor wanted me to have. Test came back negative, too.
I did lose 75 pounds about 5 years ago. I have gained back 20, but I am back on track and taking it off again.2 -
My GP never mentioned my weight. I've been overweight my whole life, and dipped into "obese" in college. I'd love to work my way back to "overweight". Maybe I needed someone who had my best interests at heart to tell me I should take charge of my health.2
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When I was heavier my doctor would once in a while mention it but never anything offensive or overbearing.
Now that I’ve lost the weight he doesn’t mention anything in regards to weight anymore so that’s nice lol1 -
The only time I've gotten a comment like that was at one point during my twin pregnancy when I was told "You don't need to be gaining quite so fast." However, there weren't fully agreed upon weight gain guidelines for twin pregnancy and I was within the parameters for the guidelines I was following. (At that point I was seeing different drs within the practice.) I ended up having healthy full term twins so I was happy.
Outside of that, I'm 5'7" and the most I've weighed outside of pregnancy was 161. My body fat percentage has been relatively high given my build, but I haven't gotten any other negative weight comments from a dr. Though one offensive "compliment" I got was from an urgent care dr who smirked, "Oh, you have PCOS? I doubt that. Most women with PCOS are ... porky." Asshat.2 -
Yes.
In a gentle supportive way he explained that extra weight would further impact my health and got me involved with an excellent Dietician who specialises in auto-immunity disease.
Before MFP I lost 20kgs by myself and each time I have appointments, both are very complimentary and encouraging.
Honestly it has been motivating and I am grateful my GP was honest and caring enough to say something.
I am in Australia.
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My Dr is very straightforward with me and as an ER nurse I expect him to be. Some of the things he has said to me are: " you need to push away from the table sooner" "since you weren't able to push away from the table maybe pushing up from the table will work" "it is obvious you love carbs no one needs to tell me" "are you even watching your weight?", "do you really think taking your shoes off will make a big difference in what the scale says?" I am not offended by any of this but do wonder if he talks like this to all his pts? So here I am trying to lose weight not because of what my Dr said but because of what I saw in our family Xmas pic...dose of hard cold reality.5
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Had one doctor tell me that my peri menopausal symptoms were all in my head ans due to me being overweight. I went to a women's specialist and found out I was not peri, I was POST menopausal and had 0 estrogen, 0 progesterone and the testosterone count of a 70 y/o. I am now on the correct hormone replacement and have lost 8 pounds. Only 70 more to go!4
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My NHS General Practitioner [UK] came right out with...."you're a time bomb just waiting to explode" because I was obese and I smoked....that frightened me so much I got down to a normal weight within 1 year which I maintained for 2 years then I totally gave up smoking....now I just need to lose the weight I put on because I dumped tobacco. Without my doctor calling me out I would either be dead, diabetic or bed ridden [I'm 70] and because I would have just carried on getting heavier and heavier and coughing my guts up.4
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My doctor did bring it up to me before *kitten* hit the fan with my health (endometriosis caused ovarian torsion and while doing surgery they found cancer and lots of bad things happened).
I had a visit with her to report persistent symptoms with pelvic pain (before my endometriosis diagnosis so no one knew what was wrong) and we talked about health behaviors that may alleviate some of my symptoms and that’s when she talked about eating a healthier diet. I figured it was a good time to tell her I needed help with that because I had been trying for so long and just could never get it together. She recommended I see a nutritional counselor as well as a behavioral specialist for binge/impulsive/emotional eating tendencies.
I’m glad we had the discussion.
Once I got my health in order as far as my hysterectomy and other surgeries and all of that nonsense I really dedicated myself to the healthy lifestyle and actually just saw her for my physical last week. I’m down 50lbs from my last visit and feel so much better (not necessarily from the weight loss but appropriate management of my other health issues). My doctor was really thrilled.
I think it’s something that directly relates to health and well-being and any good doctor should bring the issue up. Now if you go for a head cold and they tell you to lose weight I don’t think that’s appropriate but at regular health maintenance visits or relevant complaints, absolutely. Most doctors want to help you get healthy.5 -
Any prudent doctor who is concerned about a patient's well being should discuss his/her weight. Being over/under weight should be addressed.
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I don't remember if I responded yet, but no never. I have never had a doctor talk to me about my weight, and I have been 100lbs overweight for about 15-ish years. But I also never had high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes or pre-diabetes, or any other conditions sometimes related to weight.
But when nobody says anything, it can hurt you more than help you. I always thought I was so lucky because nobody ever mentioned my weight, but it made that much harder to make the decision for myself.
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