Would You Walk Around with a Feeding Tube to Lose Weight?

The New York Times has an article on the extremes to which some brides will go to lose weight for their weddings. (Subscription required but access to 10 free articles a month.)


In March, Jessica Schnaider, 41, of Surfside, Fla., was preparing to shop for a wedding gown by spending eight days on a feeding tube. The diet, under a doctor’s supervision, offered 800 calories a day while she went about her business, with a tube in her nose.


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/fashion/weddings/Losing-Weight-in-Time-for-the-Wedding.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

Replies

  • rainydaze613
    rainydaze613 Posts: 112 Member
    Never. I couldn't just live like that, even for eight days. I enjoy eating too much anyway.
  • BrianSharpe
    BrianSharpe Posts: 9,248 Member
    No and I think her doctor needs a kick in the butt too. Just because it was "under a doctor's supervision" doesn't make it a good idea.
  • Tink_889
    Tink_889 Posts: 244 Member
    No and I think that's really sad. The Doctor doesn't sound very helpful in all honesty!
  • lsjd2000
    lsjd2000 Posts: 287 Member
    No- those things are super uncomfertable -my dh had one after having surgery a few years ago, A good doctor would not approve that type of weight loss
  • HMVOL7409
    HMVOL7409 Posts: 1,588 Member
    That doctor shouldn't be practicing. That is totally absurd and not what NG Tubes are used for. That's so sad that brides self esteem is that low she resorted to such drastic measures. People just don't want to work for anything anymore.
  • susannamarie
    susannamarie Posts: 2,148 Member
    If I were to the point where I considered this better than being overweight, I wouldn't be walking.

    In other words, I wouldn't choose this unless I were too overweight to walk.
  • fitby38
    fitby38 Posts: 307 Member
    nope ... negative
  • Teapotdomescam
    Teapotdomescam Posts: 156 Member
    No and I think her doctor needs a kick in the butt too. Just because it was "under a doctor's supervision" doesn't make it a good idea.

    Yeah seriously, isn't 800 calories considered "starving" yourself? Nobody should ever eat that low.
  • The stupidity, ignorance and utter madness that some doctors are allowed to call practice will never fail to amaze me.
    That should never have been allowed to happen and that doctor should be laid off, there was nothing okay about what he did.

    :indifferent:
  • cowlover22
    cowlover22 Posts: 309 Member
    Obviously that dr just cares about money and not his patient. Even for 8 days of starving yourself it starts to have its negative affects on your body. That girls thinking is how my thinking was when I was in my eating disorder 100%. He is the doctor he should know better.I am a nurse and I would never tell my patients to do the things I have done.

    One thing that sticks in my mind...my mom died of pancreatic cancer and her entire life she was always on some kind of diet. She had an under active thyroid and maybe was slightly overweight. But as she lay there in our living room in the hospital bed she said to me "all those years of dieting. And for what?" Guess she has a point!
  • Birder150
    Birder150 Posts: 677 Member
    good grief.
  • LaMujerMasBonitaDelMundo
    LaMujerMasBonitaDelMundo Posts: 3,634 Member
    That's too bad. Unless the patient is in coma or in a vegetative state, with the way that doctor treated his patient, looks like he needs to be taught a GMRC (good manners & right conduct) class. We didn't put on weight overnight by a feeding tube so why expect to lose it that way either. :ohwell:
  • TrishJimenez
    TrishJimenez Posts: 561 Member
    No and I think her doctor needs a kick in the butt too. Just because it was "under a doctor's supervision" doesn't make it a good idea.

    Yeah seriously, isn't 800 calories considered "starving" yourself? Nobody should ever eat that low.

    There is a girl I work with who is working with a dr who gives her pills and a special diet and she has been eating 800 cals a day for 4 months. And she works two jobs where she is on her feet all day. I personally dont know how she does it.
  • AndiJoy812
    AndiJoy812 Posts: 236
    That is the most ignorant thing that I have heard in quite a while, and it ticks me off to no end. As a speech-pathologist who has worked with patients recovering from neurological events who can not swallow and need a NG tube to survive; who would give anything to be able to eat or drink again - and then to see this nitwit walking around with one BY CHOICE because she wants to lose weight for her wedding??!? I would rip it out...and the doctor that ordered it needs to get his license revoked. Idiots.
  • deadbeatsummer
    deadbeatsummer Posts: 537 Member
    That is the most ignorant thing that I have heard in quite a while, and it ticks me off to no end. As a speech-pathologist who has worked with patients recovering from neurological events who can not swallow and need a NG tube to survive; who would give anything to be able to eat or drink again - and then to see this nitwit walking around with one BY CHOICE because she wants to lose weight for her wedding??!? I would rip it out...and the doctor that ordered it needs to get his license revoked. Idiots.

    Agree, it was painful seeing my mum have to spend her last two years being fed through a tube at the age of 52 (her, not me). Horrible. I can't believe people would do this buy choice for appearance. Actually I can. *****es be crazy.
  • Kebby83
    Kebby83 Posts: 232 Member
    Patients on feeding tubes generally tell me they are hungry and thirsty...even while being fed. There is no satisfaction and it would lead to a binge. I am a caregiver.
  • springermad
    springermad Posts: 242
    That is ludicrous, why would anyone chose to have one of those things, this time last year I had to have one not out of choice but due to the fact I was in ITU and hated every minute of it when I realised that I had one and couldnt wait for it to be out.

    If this doesnt encourage disordered eating what does. How on earth can any medical professional allow this!! I am shocked and disgusted by it x
  • gpstrucker
    gpstrucker Posts: 930 Member
    I heard about this on the radio recently. Just more evidence to support my theory that planet Earth is really the galaxy's insane asylum.