Does your doctor comment on your weight?

CurvyEmmy wrote: »

Exactly, and that’s why I don’t identify as “morbidly obese”. I know my body and I know my fitness level and I know that “morbidly obese” doesn’t fit who I am on the inside.

Yes, I’m overweight and I admit that and that’s why I’m here. I am overweight. But I am also a relatively healthy and relatively average woman. ”Morbidly obese” is an awful term and makes it sound like I’m freaking 400 pounds. That’s not me. My weight has actually been pretty average my whole life and I only gained weight recently because of the pandemic. I am chubby but I don’t think anybody would look at me and say “she’s morbidly obese”!

You remind me so much of where I was 7 years ago. So, so much.

And I will say, even though this thread is not about this, that body positivity and self worth, at any size, should NOT be determined by a number on a scale or a tag number on a clothing rack. All of us, are so much more than that.

That self worth does not negate the scientific fact that increased weight, particularly increased abdominal weight, increases the likelihood for developing diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, even if a person does not currently have any of those issues. It puts them at higher risk to develop them, and at higher risk to suffer ill effects from them, up to and including death- hence the term morbidly obese. As macabre as the term may be, it is a simple medical diagnosis and descriptor- no different than 'diabetic', 'underweight', or 'bi-polar'. It is not a reflection on the person as a whole, or their personality or what kind of person they are. Simply a diagnosis. I used to be in the morbidly obese category. A fact is a fact. I am now probably just a few pounds shy of the overweight category, I think. I'd have to look at the charts. not too far from it, I know.

Back to the actual topic at hand, my Doctor and I talk about my weight constantly but thats my biggest preoccupation LMAO Before I started to lose weight, I didnt have insurance, so I only went to the doctor if I was having some kind of emergency and really HAD to go, and I certainly was not there to be 'lectured' about anything else. But was it brought up? Yes. And yes, I would say ' yes, i know, I need to work on it' and change the topic (like so many others, im sure). I began seeing another doctor after I had insurance, and she was wonderful and a great partner to work with. Got married, different insurance, went back to my old doctor. Didnt go back to him until THIS year. I didnt actually know my REAL starting weight until not long ago (they had my old records from random visits, remember). And was FLOORED, because it was a LOT higher than I THOUGHT it was. I mean, he was floored too, cause I was literally HALF the size, almost (am now lol).

So did he try to talk to me before about weight? yes. but I didnt do anything about it until I was ready to, which is another story entirely.

CurvyEmmy wrote: »

I gained 80 pounds in a year and a half so it was hard to ignore, but I’m so thankful my doctor didn’t call me “obese”. That word is very triggering and carries a lot of stigma. I am over 240 pounds now so I know that I am overweight at this point but “obese”
is a word that still feels very, very hard for me to accept and I definitely don’t identify myself with that label.

My previous doctor said I was “overweight” back when I was only 160 pounds which is a totally average weight for a 5’5” woman (most of my friends are in the 170s of 180s) and doesn’t seem big to me at all… I had an average fitness level and wasn’t too out of shape, so being labeled “overweight” was a big shock to me and just felt really, really unfair. I deserve better than being called “overweight” in a way that’s so insensitive to my feelings about it. Needless to say I changed doctors after that!

Everyone knows the BMI system is crap because it doesn’t account for muscle mass. A muscular woman could have a high BMI due to the muscle weight, but still have very low body fat, and BMI will classify her as “obese”. So yes, you can be “obese” according to BMI and be perfectly healthy. We need to be a lot more careful with words like “obese” because it can really hurt a person’s self-esteem and body image!

To really evaluate someone’s health you need to look at way more than just weight alone. But doctors are lazy and they throw around these very unfair labels of “overweight” and “obese” based on height/weight alone. Women are constantly judged and labeled based on a number on a scale that doesn’t tell you the whole story. It’s so unfair and really pisses me off!!

There's nothing UNFAIR about the labels “overweight” and “obese” - these are medical terms to which you are giving too much power.

If when I reach my goal weight, which is in an overweight BMI, and my doctor gives me a hard time about being overweight (which is not likely to happen given my prior experience with VA doctors) I will ask for a DEXA scan and be guided by the results. And not take it at all personally.

kshama2001 wrote: »

paperpudding wrote: »

CurvyEmmy wrote: »

paperpudding wrote: »

Nobody (barring obvious outliers like people with dwarfism or born with missing limbs) has a 'natural shape' that is far out of healthy BMI range

I’ve been outside of the “healthy” BMI range my whole life DESPITE a relatively healthy lifestyle. I know lots of women in the same boat. Some people are just naturally heavier!

Nobody is just naturally heavier very far out of BMI range, (slightly out, yes that is possible for some people, but not very far) regardless of how healthy they eat or their lifestyle is or how much their friends weigh.

Here I am, the person who always goes on about frame size! I do agree with this though - my goal weight is just into the Overweight BMI category.

I have a large frame http://www.myfooddiary.com/Resources/frame_size_calculator.asp * and the only time I've had a BMI as low as 24 was after 6 weeks of undereating and overexercising during boot camp. (When I first arrived there, I had to get boots and hats from the men's side of the uniforms room because there weren't any big enough in women's. At 5'6", I'm not especially tall. I've always had a hard time buying bracelets. I wear men's shoes as often as I can get away with it.)

My goal is to get back into my skinny jeans from when I was a full time yoga teacher, which will have me at a Low Overweight BMI, and I'm ok with that.

*This calculator may be inaccurate for people considerably overweight. I still had a large frame when I had a BMI of 24 when I was in the military.

yes, exactly. An example of exactly what I meant

some people's best weight may be slightly out of BMI range - say, BMI of 26 or 27

Slightly out - or officially just into over weight level

Not obese or morbidly obese level..

My doctor has mentioned weight when it was relevant to the issues I was discussing with her. Mostly when she wanted to put me on meds and I was balking.

I had bad reflux at one point and she told me losing some weight might let me stop needing prilosec, same when my cholesterol got to the point where she wanted to put me on statins. When I saw her the next year and I had lost considerable weight she made sure it was on purpose.

I never felt that she was blaming my health issues on my weight, and i was glad she was up front about weight loss when it could potentially affect my need for meds. She always presented it as a neutral alternative.

The only time I go to the doctor is for my annual wellness check, but she almost always comments on my weight. I joined MFP in 2011 at 158# (I'm 5'10). I took off 20# in two months. My doctor commented favorably but also told me not to lose anymore because it could increase my risk factor for osteoporosis. (Although I lift weights and do high impact exercise - running - so I'm not worried about it.) When I went in in 2013 my weight was 132# and she started to lecture me but I told her it was a false low because I was dehydrated from running a relay race in the heat the day before. (It returned to normal over the next couple days.) Over the years she would mention that I was doing a good job of maintaining - and then a couple years ago my weight started going up and she commented on that - not that I was at an unhealthy weight but that I was trending up. When I went in last fall I was expecting a lecture because I gained 15-20# from August 2020 - Oct 2020 (my BF and I were in extended celebration mode after moving in together) and was at my highest weight ever by several pounds, but she didn't say a word. I'm wondering if it was some kind of "pandemic reprieve." I have my next wellness check in October so I've got 38 days to make some progress so I don't get a talking to by my doctor. All my numbers are good - blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar. I very much appreciate how thorough she is and that she's not afraid to be honest with me.

My doctor mentioned it in term of 'your labs are high, losing weight may help them go down' hence the start of trying to lose weight.

autobahn66 wrote: »

Hi everyone,



People argue that being overweight by its nature is unhealthy I take it to mean that, as a lot of evidence shows, the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, osteoarthritis etc increase with increasing weight. The studies which showed this did not often look at more complex metrics than BMI, and have many confounders (such as socioeconomic status which is highly correlated to weight) but have been done on huge populations. The sheer number of people studied gives strong evidence that on average being heavier increases the risk of specific diseases, although each disease risk is somewhat independent. Specific evidence of an impairment in general wellbeing is harder to come by: although I believe there are some studies which also support this and it can be inferred from the higher rates of physical health problems (and concomitant other life/mental health issues) in overweight populations.

This is completely a straw-man argument to say that research on health effects of obesity is flawed because it relies on BMI rather than more relevant measures like % body fat. Yes, BMI is imperfect as a measure. That means that if health effects are found using BMI as the guide for obesity, then the health effects would probably be EVEN MORE clear and more pronounced if you were using a really good measure of obesity.

I see a Family Nurse Practitioner, and I LOVE him. We've discussed my weight. We've discussed it when it was up (and how it impacts my labs, etc), when it was down, and when it's crept back up. He's super supportive, offers resources (referrals to see a Registered Dietician, etc), and is just overall amazing. When I went in last year, and had experienced some re-gain during the pandemic, he empathized with me, and identified as having done the same. We both committed to tackling it. I see him again in December. I'm down 43 now. We'll see how he's done.

dralicephd wrote: »

The only time a doc commented on my weight was when I was very pregnant. Apparently, she felt it was a good idea to tell the super hormonally-emotional pregnant lady that she was gaining weight too quickly. I seriously only had a couple of months left in the pregnancy and all my labs showed that I and my baby were healthy. I already felt like a whale, I didn't need that.

Maybe she didn't use the best bedside manner but I'm thinking the doctor wanted you to do what you could to keep it that way.