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Does your doctor comment on your weight?

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  • 33gail33
    33gail33 Posts: 1,155 Member
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    33gail33 wrote: »
    I think 10 kg is considered about the right amount to gain

    Of course there are other factors influencing what is best for each person - but as a rough rule of thumb.

    Really? That seems way too low to me - I have always heard 25 - 35 lbs is recommended amount for an average weight woman.


    Yes really.

    I did say 10 kg, not 10 lb.

    Which is about 22 lb.

    Slightly lower than your range but not way lower.

    Yes I did the math. :) Given that it is lower than the lowest end of the recommendation it is actually "way lower".

    At any rate not sure what area of Australia you are in but this is from the Queensland Health Department:

    Target weight gains during pregnancy:
    Pre-pregnancy BMI (kg/m2) Recommended total weight gain range (kg)
    <18.5 underweight 12.5 to 18
    18.5 to 24.9 normal weight 11.5 to 16
    25.0 to 29.9 overweight 7 to 11.5
    ≥ 30.0 obese 5 to 9

    You'll notice that my comment mentioned "average weight" woman - and the range I gave is exactly what is recommended here. Maybe you see a lot of overweight women in your practice or something so for you "average weight" is overweight? What I meant was "normal weight" or not in the under or overweight BMI range. So for those women 10 kg is below the recommendations in your country for that group.
  • Theoldguy1
    Theoldguy1 Posts: 2,476 Member
    edited October 2021
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    Late the the thread - answering the original question:

    My cardiologist never talks about weight. Don't know about my new PCP as we won't meet until next month. Besides, what do 95% of docs KNOW about nutrition? Having several docs as friends I came to learn that nutrition is a single course during their undergrad days. One freaking course on nutrition! They! Do! Not! Know! Nutrition!

    So I stumble on with my wife and we dig in to the research. <sigh/>

    And the one course in nutrition the doctor gets as an undergrad is one more course than probably 98% of the population gets.

    So if they know nothing, the vast majority of the general population is really screwed regarding their own knowledge.

    P.S. I do think doctors as well as PAs, NPs, nurses, etc. should have more training in nutrition than they get.


  • KeithBarrows
    KeithBarrows Posts: 34 Member
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    Theoldguy1 wrote: »
    P.S. I do think doctors as well as PAs, NPs, nurses, etc. should have more training in nutrition than they get.

    I cannot agree more. Unfortunately, the general attitude is to rely on Nutritionists or fake it because "I am the doctor and I *should* know this." The insurance companies have not made it any easier for the doctors or the patients. Prevention is NOT a focus. There is no $$$ in it.

  • Theoldguy1
    Theoldguy1 Posts: 2,476 Member
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    Theoldguy1 wrote: »
    P.S. I do think doctors as well as PAs, NPs, nurses, etc. should have more training in nutrition than they get.

    I cannot agree more. Unfortunately, the general attitude is to rely on Nutritionists or fake it because "I am the doctor and I *should* know this." The insurance companies have not made it any easier for the doctors or the patients. Prevention is NOT a focus. There is no $$$ in it.

    Agree with lack of preventive medicine.

    Personally I don't mind if a medical professional (or really anyone for that matter) says they don't know something and suggests I consult another professional, even better if they can refer me to the appropriate person.
  • Mellouk89
    Mellouk89 Posts: 469 Member
    edited October 2021
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    A coworker of mine is 5'7 260lbs, her doctor told him that his healthy weight is 200. We're talking about a dude who doesn't workout.

    I don't know if she said that to give him a reasonable goal or she really thinks 200lbs is his healthy weight. Maybe she doesn't think he can lose the weight. Who knows.

    Now the guy thinks he is large framed and that 200 is what he should shoot for.

    Just an anecdote.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,988 Member
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    Theoldguy1 wrote: »
    P.S. I do think doctors as well as PAs, NPs, nurses, etc. should have more training in nutrition than they get.

    I cannot agree more. Unfortunately, the general attitude is to rely on Nutritionists or fake it because "I am the doctor and I *should* know this." The insurance companies have not made it any easier for the doctors or the patients. Prevention is NOT a focus. There is no $$$ in it.

    @KeithBarrows: I saw in your other thread that you were a Marine. I'm former USAF myself. Are you getting your health care through the VA? I am, and my doctor immediately referred me to a Registered Dietitian, presumably realizing she did not have the background to be of much use.
  • KeithBarrows
    KeithBarrows Posts: 34 Member
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    @kshama2001 - No. While I served for 13 years too much of it was Reserve time so I ended up with zero VA coverage.
  • nooshi713
    nooshi713 Posts: 4,877 Member
    edited October 2021
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    33gail33 wrote: »
    nooshi713 wrote: »
    Doctors should tell pregnant women when they are gaining too quickly. No reason to get offended. I say this having recently been pregnant. My baby is 3 months old.

    Why? Does it harm the baby somehow to gain weight quickly vs slowly?

    I remember my doctor telling me the same thing (many years ago) when I gained 7 lbs one month. Made some snide comment about "eating too much ice cream" and how I'd just have a lot more to lose. But everyone I know who has been pregnant has been like that, big jumps in weight some months. I think I ended up gaining 32 lbs total, at 5' 10" and starting weight of 130. Sometimes doctors are just *kitten*.

    (He also told me my 10 lb baby was going to be "average size" - I switched doctors for the next two.)

    Yes. Rapid or excessive weight gain during pregnancy is associated with increased risks for macrosomia, shoulder dystocia, increased rate of c-section, and gestational diabetes among others. So yes, doctors SHOULD say something.

    Oh and most pregnant women I know did not gain a ton of weight unless it was due to fluid/edema.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
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    Just popping by to say hello to a fellow Scadian.

    Hello m'Lady (as I have no idea your rank - yet.) Lord Iohannes at your service. Once of An Tir, then the Outlands where I became the 2nd Squire to Sir Leifr, now residing in Trimaris (Shire of Sangre del Sol). But shhh! We never told anyone we were here since we moved in 3 years ago.

    An Tir here. But my tiny shire in the middle of nowhere didn’t survive the pandemic, sad to report.
    Fortunately my son and his wife now live in the thriving Barony of Baltha An Oir. So there are still events in our future.

    In my years of medieval re-enactment I’ve been a Pied Piper, a herald - mostly field heraldry, which is great fun and lots of walking - but also book heraldry and illumination/scribe, and court herald on occasion. Many times an event autocrat, which is fun if you delegate properly :D,
    I’ve entered arts and science competitions, but mostly to ensure there were the minimum of three entries, so someone else had a chance to be a champion.

    I spin, and weave, and sew. I can sing a ribald tune, or an inspirational filk, depending on the occasion. All thanks to my SCA participation.

    Fun story, re your proper use of m’lady.
    I have never taken the game (it is a game) so seriously that I thought pretend nobility were more important than pretend peasants (my persona is a peasant).

    And so, on Thursday night, during 30 year,

    No (kitten) there I was….
    I had my then ten year old son with me. My husband had to work most of that week, so it was just the two of us, in a tiny tent.
    I chose to set up very near a large group of portable toilets. That way my son would have a good geographic marker to find our tent should he ever get lost.

    Anyhow…. Southern Washington State, Thursday evening in late April, 1998…

    We’re sound asleep. Because we’re in the quiet camping section . Y’know. Where the families are camped.

    Around 3 AM there is noise on the wide path outside the tent.

    Lots of noise.

    Lots and lots of drunken noise.

    I peeked out of the tent, and saw a couple hundred people. All lined up for the porta-potties. They kept getting louder and louder.

    Imagine a rave. Right outside your bedroom window. A medieval rave. Complete with hurdy gurdies and belled jesters.

    After half an hour (yes. I timed it) I had had enough. I stuck my head outside the tent and screamed at the top of my lungs “SHUT UUUUUUP!!!!!!!” and then pulled my head back inside and went back to sleep, in the blissful silence.

    Fast forward a decade. My son and I were at a black smithing class. SCA, of course. The instructor was a BIG DEAL, rather high up in An Tir’s Order of Precedence.

    He began a story about how it really is all a game. And how, at 30 year, on Thursday night, it was the night the King and Queen of Drachenwald had finally arrived on site. So all the Kings and Queens, and every Baron and Baroness, and most Pelicans and other High Muckity Mucks were partying.

    They decided to tour their world, such as it was. And they got drunker and drunker as they went along. Eventually forgetting there was a quiet section. Where children were sleeping. Mere yards away from the large collection of portable toilets.

    When the “crazy woman” stuck her head out of her teeny tiny tent and told basically every pointy hat in the entire known world to “shut up” it was a hilarious, but necessary reminder.

    I laughed so hard, and admitted it was me. And that they had woken up my son.

    Had it not been a game? It would likely not have ended as a funny story the Barons and Pelicans tell each other over their camp fires.

    😉

    OK. That’s enough time off topic.

    This is a great story, thanks for this!
  • wunderkindking
    wunderkindking Posts: 1,615 Member
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    Carlos_421 wrote: »
    Mellouk89 wrote: »
    A coworker of mine is 5'7 260lbs, her doctor told him that his healthy weight is 200. We're talking about a dude who doesn't workout.

    I don't know if she said that to give him a reasonable goal or she really thinks 200lbs is his healthy weight. Maybe she doesn't think he can lose the weight. Who knows.

    Now the guy thinks he is large framed and that 200 is what he should shoot for.

    Just an anecdote.

    It seems that most heavier people in my own circles have this same misconception, that they do need to lose some weight but that they're just "built big" and that their ideal weight is only 20-30 lbs away when that goal would still leave them in the obese category.

    Edit: I sadly think this is a symptom of skewed perception due to the average size of the general population. When average is overweight, overweight seems "right."

    I think some of it's that it's perception from the population being largely overweight, but I also think it's that we only see the fat in the most obvious places on ourselves. Even at obese (barely) I could not quite grasp how much I had to lose. I always carried most of my weight VISUALLY in my torso - breasts, back, stomach, and upper thighs. So when I thought 'lose' I'd look at those bits and go 'There's not X amount of pounds there'.

    Well, no, but I had viceral fat and my even comparatively twiggy arms and legs and face and fingers all had fat they lost. So my 'There's not 50-60lbs of fat in my stomach' was accurate -- especially since I didn't expect to lose cup sizes - but the thought that there wasn't fat other places that needed to go was NOT.
  • ythannah
    ythannah Posts: 4,368 Member
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    Carlos_421 wrote: »
    Mellouk89 wrote: »
    A coworker of mine is 5'7 260lbs, her doctor told him that his healthy weight is 200. We're talking about a dude who doesn't workout.

    I don't know if she said that to give him a reasonable goal or she really thinks 200lbs is his healthy weight. Maybe she doesn't think he can lose the weight. Who knows.

    Now the guy thinks he is large framed and that 200 is what he should shoot for.

    Just an anecdote.

    It seems that most heavier people in my own circles have this same misconception, that they do need to lose some weight but that they're just "built big" and that their ideal weight is only 20-30 lbs away when that goal would still leave them in the obese category.

    Edit: I sadly think this is a symptom of skewed perception due to the average size of the general population. When average is overweight, overweight seems "right."

    The SO is a very tall man who, in his younger years, was a skinny twig who could eat mountains of junk food and never gain weight, so he just kept eating that way. Fast forward to middle age and his doctor just informed him he is pre-diabetic and has him trying a low carb diet.

    He started out at close to 260lbs. I think he's around 230 now and says he only wants to lose 10 more. I have no idea why 220 is the magic number but that's his goal. BMI for his height says normal weight is 180 to 220 and I'm not sure parking yourself on the uppermost threshold of normal is the best way to avoid diabetes. Too easy for that to creep up again.
  • rheddmobile
    rheddmobile Posts: 6,840 Member
    edited November 2021
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    ythannah wrote: »
    Carlos_421 wrote: »
    Mellouk89 wrote: »
    A coworker of mine is 5'7 260lbs, her doctor told him that his healthy weight is 200. We're talking about a dude who doesn't workout.

    I don't know if she said that to give him a reasonable goal or she really thinks 200lbs is his healthy weight. Maybe she doesn't think he can lose the weight. Who knows.

    Now the guy thinks he is large framed and that 200 is what he should shoot for.

    Just an anecdote.

    It seems that most heavier people in my own circles have this same misconception, that they do need to lose some weight but that they're just "built big" and that their ideal weight is only 20-30 lbs away when that goal would still leave them in the obese category.

    Edit: I sadly think this is a symptom of skewed perception due to the average size of the general population. When average is overweight, overweight seems "right."

    The SO is a very tall man who, in his younger years, was a skinny twig who could eat mountains of junk food and never gain weight, so he just kept eating that way. Fast forward to middle age and his doctor just informed him he is pre-diabetic and has him trying a low carb diet.

    He started out at close to 260lbs. I think he's around 230 now and says he only wants to lose 10 more. I have no idea why 220 is the magic number but that's his goal. BMI for his height says normal weight is 180 to 220 and I'm not sure parking yourself on the uppermost threshold of normal is the best way to avoid diabetes. Too easy for that to creep up again.

    If he’s like my husband he may be afraid of looking scrawny. My husband also went from a twig to a shlubby guy and thinks he looks better at a heavier weight - which is honestly true - but he looks even better at an appropriate weight with some muscle added back.

    Also, lifting heavy is excellent at improving insulin resistance. Maybe you can persuade your husband to trade fat for muscle?
  • rheddmobile
    rheddmobile Posts: 6,840 Member
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    Just popping by to say hello to a fellow Scadian.

    Hello m'Lady (as I have no idea your rank - yet.) Lord Iohannes at your service. Once of An Tir, then the Outlands where I became the 2nd Squire to Sir Leifr, now residing in Trimaris (Shire of Sangre del Sol). But shhh! We never told anyone we were here since we moved in 3 years ago.

    An Tir here. But my tiny shire in the middle of nowhere didn’t survive the pandemic, sad to report.
    Fortunately my son and his wife now live in the thriving Barony of Baltha An Oir. So there are still events in our future.

    In my years of medieval re-enactment I’ve been a Pied Piper, a herald - mostly field heraldry, which is great fun and lots of walking - but also book heraldry and illumination/scribe, and court herald on occasion. Many times an event autocrat, which is fun if you delegate properly :D,
    I’ve entered arts and science competitions, but mostly to ensure there were the minimum of three entries, so someone else had a chance to be a champion.

    I spin, and weave, and sew. I can sing a ribald tune, or an inspirational filk, depending on the occasion. All thanks to my SCA participation.

    Fun story, re your proper use of m’lady.
    I have never taken the game (it is a game) so seriously that I thought pretend nobility were more important than pretend peasants (my persona is a peasant).

    And so, on Thursday night, during 30 year,

    No (kitten) there I was….
    I had my then ten year old son with me. My husband had to work most of that week, so it was just the two of us, in a tiny tent.
    I chose to set up very near a large group of portable toilets. That way my son would have a good geographic marker to find our tent should he ever get lost.

    Anyhow…. Southern Washington State, Thursday evening in late April, 1998…

    We’re sound asleep. Because we’re in the quiet camping section . Y’know. Where the families are camped.

    Around 3 AM there is noise on the wide path outside the tent.

    Lots of noise.

    Lots and lots of drunken noise.

    I peeked out of the tent, and saw a couple hundred people. All lined up for the porta-potties. They kept getting louder and louder.

    Imagine a rave. Right outside your bedroom window. A medieval rave. Complete with hurdy gurdies and belled jesters.

    After half an hour (yes. I timed it) I had had enough. I stuck my head outside the tent and screamed at the top of my lungs “SHUT UUUUUUP!!!!!!!” and then pulled my head back inside and went back to sleep, in the blissful silence.

    Fast forward a decade. My son and I were at a black smithing class. SCA, of course. The instructor was a BIG DEAL, rather high up in An Tir’s Order of Precedence.

    He began a story about how it really is all a game. And how, at 30 year, on Thursday night, it was the night the King and Queen of Drachenwald had finally arrived on site. So all the Kings and Queens, and every Baron and Baroness, and most Pelicans and other High Muckity Mucks were partying.

    They decided to tour their world, such as it was. And they got drunker and drunker as they went along. Eventually forgetting there was a quiet section. Where children were sleeping. Mere yards away from the large collection of portable toilets.

    When the “crazy woman” stuck her head out of her teeny tiny tent and told basically every pointy hat in the entire known world to “shut up” it was a hilarious, but necessary reminder.

    I laughed so hard, and admitted it was me. And that they had woken up my son.

    Had it not been a game? It would likely not have ended as a funny story the Barons and Pelicans tell each other over their camp fires.

    😉

    OK. That’s enough time off topic.

    Meridies here, many years past. Great story!
  • ythannah
    ythannah Posts: 4,368 Member
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    ythannah wrote: »
    Carlos_421 wrote: »
    Mellouk89 wrote: »
    A coworker of mine is 5'7 260lbs, her doctor told him that his healthy weight is 200. We're talking about a dude who doesn't workout.

    I don't know if she said that to give him a reasonable goal or she really thinks 200lbs is his healthy weight. Maybe she doesn't think he can lose the weight. Who knows.

    Now the guy thinks he is large framed and that 200 is what he should shoot for.

    Just an anecdote.

    It seems that most heavier people in my own circles have this same misconception, that they do need to lose some weight but that they're just "built big" and that their ideal weight is only 20-30 lbs away when that goal would still leave them in the obese category.

    Edit: I sadly think this is a symptom of skewed perception due to the average size of the general population. When average is overweight, overweight seems "right."

    The SO is a very tall man who, in his younger years, was a skinny twig who could eat mountains of junk food and never gain weight, so he just kept eating that way. Fast forward to middle age and his doctor just informed him he is pre-diabetic and has him trying a low carb diet.

    He started out at close to 260lbs. I think he's around 230 now and says he only wants to lose 10 more. I have no idea why 220 is the magic number but that's his goal. BMI for his height says normal weight is 180 to 220 and I'm not sure parking yourself on the uppermost threshold of normal is the best way to avoid diabetes. Too easy for that to creep up again.

    If he’s like my husband he may be afraid of looking scrawny. My husband also went from a twig to a shlubby guy and thinks he looks better at a heavier weight - which is honestly true - but he looks even better at an appropriate weight with some muscle added back.

    Also, lifting heavy is excellent at improving insulin resistance. Maybe you can persuade your husband to trade fat for muscle?

    His arms and legs have stayed very thin, all the extra weight went to his abdomen and he started having back issues. Which sort of semi-motivated him to lose weight, but not to the extent of giving up his junk food habit, Not even the prospect of having to increase his pants size (it's very difficult for him to find clothing!) really prompted any change,

    I've lifted for 5 or so years now and he's never had any interest, plus he's concerned about his back even though I did say that strengthening his core could help that. Deliberate exercise is not his thing, although I can usually get him to come out on hikes with me. He was given a very nice treadmill and used it for maybe a week.