Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I almost don’t believe this story. I just can’t imagine a doctor saying this to a normal weight woman.

I gained 15 pounds due to SSRIs (went from thin to average BMI for my height), and every time I expressed concerns, the doctors would point out that my BMI was in the healthy range. They were like, you might prefer to be at a lower weight, but you are still at a healthy weight. (I lost the extra weight so I didn’t have to buy a new wardrobe, but from a health standpoint, a doctor should be focusing on actual health factors not whether you look a certain way.)

Like others have said, the doctor should have at a minimum explained why he wanted you to lose this weight.

10 years sgo, I was 5'7 and 142 and a male doctor casually said, during a physical, "You could lose 10-15 pounds!". I was stunned and actually gained 10 pounds in 2 months after that. Some male doctors are a holes and I think ops doctor is one of them.

I actually had a similar experience. I needed a physical for something work-related and it wasn't my regular Dr. I was within a healthy BMI range but he made a similar "you could lose 10lbs" comment. Didn't give any medical reason, I honestly felt like he was just saying "you could be hotter". He was an immigrant and English wasn't his first language so I kind of wrote it off at the time as cultural/language mismatch. But it was very jarring and made me feel gross

Anonymous wrote:I almost don’t believe this story. I just can’t imagine a doctor saying this to a normal weight woman.

I gained 15 pounds due to SSRIs (went from thin to average BMI for my height), and every time I expressed concerns, the doctors would point out that my BMI was in the healthy range. They were like, you might prefer to be at a lower weight, but you are still at a healthy weight. (I lost the extra weight so I didn’t have to buy a new wardrobe, but from a health standpoint, a doctor should be focusing on actual health factors not whether you look a certain way.)

Like others have said, the doctor should have at a minimum explained why he wanted you to lose this weight.

10 years sgo, I was 5'7 and 142 and a male doctor casually said, during a physical, "You could lose 10-15 pounds!". I was stunned and actually gained 10 pounds in 2 months after that. Some male doctors are a holes and I think ops doctor is one of them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OK? Why don’t you actually try it and see how it goes? Then if it doesn’t go well even though you are being reasonable and healthy, you at least can report back to your doctor that conscious and healthy habits didn’t move the needle.

I don’t understand your attitude here. If you want to disregard his advice, disregard it and move on with your day. If you want to take his advice, at least try before saying it can’t be done.

What was his basis for giving this advice? That is a healthy BMI. BMI is not a perfect measure, of course, but generally it's the main indicator health professionals use and I would expect a Dr to have some reason for telling you to lose weight if you're within the healthy zone.

Again, some more: if OP doesn't think this is reasonable advice, or advice she needs to take action on, then why is she here complaining? Just disregard and move on with your day. What is the point of this post?

OP, can you come back and tell us what reason the Dr gave for this?

Like, I can imagine a Dr saying this if your BP or cholesterol or A1C are high, or maybe if your weight has been trending up and they are concerned about stopping the gain. But if there was no reason given, you probably need a new Dr.

Anonymous wrote:I’m early 50’s woman, 5’4”, 135 lb. I think that is within healthy BMI, but apparently still not enough. I mean, sure, I’d love to lose a couple pounds around my middle, but I think of myself as pretty average, not overweight. To remain 135, I don’t drink much, rarely eat out, rarely eat desserts, pasta, bread, none of which are huge sacrifices for me. Getting to a lower weight would probably require being hungry. I told him that I thought it was unlikely and he said it should be easy.

That's a very specific amount of weight. What else did this man doctor advise you to do?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OK? Why don’t you actually try it and see how it goes? Then if it doesn’t go well even though you are being reasonable and healthy, you at least can report back to your doctor that conscious and healthy habits didn’t move the needle.

I don’t understand your attitude here. If you want to disregard his advice, disregard it and move on with your day. If you want to take his advice, at least try before saying it can’t be done.

np I disagree with you pp. The op sounds healthy to me and I think she should get a NEW doctor. Even when I was overweight and I asked her my ideal weight she was hesitant to give it because she wanted me to lose a bit and not get discouraged. How old is this doctor?

Even 10 pounds of extra weight equals 40 pounds of pressure on the knees. Sorry, extra weight does have health consequences.

But "extra" compared to what baseline? OP is a healthy weight.

I think you should get a new doctor. Get a woman.

Anonymous wrote:OK? Why don’t you actually try it and see how it goes? Then if it doesn’t go well even though you are being reasonable and healthy, you at least can report back to your doctor that conscious and healthy habits didn’t move the needle.

I don’t understand your attitude here. If you want to disregard his advice, disregard it and move on with your day. If you want to take his advice, at least try before saying it can’t be done.

What was his basis for giving this advice? That is a healthy BMI. BMI is not a perfect measure, of course, but generally it's the main indicator health professionals use and I would expect a Dr to have some reason for telling you to lose weight if you're within the healthy zone.

Is your BP, cholesterol, and/ir glucose borderline or high? If so, losing 7-8 lbs would still be within a heathy weight and may help you avoid meds. I doubt he told you to lose 8 lbs for vanity sake

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thats ridiculous. Im 5'4" and 150 lbs. i would like to get to 142 or so. But thats it. No dr has ever told me to lose weight at my stats.

Doctors rarely tell people to lose weight.

IMO you are fat, unless you are a body builder. Sorry.

IMO, you are rude and a jerk. One of those "sorry not sorry" people who think they're just spitting facts, the hard truth, tough love. In reality, you are accomplishing nothing but showing your own ignorance.

OP...I would not try to lose weight as a goal. Look at your diet, see if there are places you can clean it up and add more nutrition. Look at your activity, and see if it can use a boost, esp in strength training.
And then go about your life because you are healthy and anyone who still thinks BMI is any indicator of anything is uninformed.

For anyone worried, waist circumference is a much better indicator of health than BMI.
Our research shows that a waistline of more than 94cm for men and 80cm for women increases the risk for some types of cancer, while a waistline of more than 102cm for men and 88cm for women (34 inches) greatly increases your risk.

Many people measure their waist incorrectly (in the wrong spot), or rely on their belt or trouser size, which is often inaccurate. For an accurate waist measurement make sure you:

measure directly over your skin or no more than one item of light clothing
take the measurement after breathing out normally
have the tape measure fitting snug, but not compressing the skin
measure at the halfway point between your lowest rib and the top of your hipbone. This will be roughly in-line with your belly button.

Anonymous wrote:There should be another reason rather than just the scale!

Weren't there studies that showed slightly overweight had better outcomes than underweight?
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3900866/

OP is nowhere near underweight, like not even close there’s no danger in her being underweight.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OK? Why don’t you actually try it and see how it goes? Then if it doesn’t go well even though you are being reasonable and healthy, you at least can report back to your doctor that conscious and healthy habits didn’t move the needle.

I don’t understand your attitude here. If you want to disregard his advice, disregard it and move on with your day. If you want to take his advice, at least try before saying it can’t be done.

I guess my attitude is that I’m already healthy and reasonable and geez, even average isn’t good enough? It feels like an impossible standard. I really feel for people who struggle with their weight (my spouse, for instance) so the casual way he was like, “No, problem, right? should be easy” was super annoying. The whole thing was annoying! I want people to be annoyed with me!

Yeah this sounds like a really weird thing for the doc to say. Was it in response to anything - high blood pressure, GERD, anything like that - or just unsolicited, unwanted, unhelpful advice?

I really struggle to imagine anyone telling someone with your stats that they should lose weight! And I am 100000% with you about feeling like as far as these sorts of last pounds go - the squeeze is not worth the juice.

Anonymous wrote:Thats ridiculous. Im 5'4" and 150 lbs. i would like to get to 142 or so. But thats it. No dr has ever told me to lose weight at my stats.

Doctors rarely tell people to lose weight.

IMO you are fat, unless you are a body builder. Sorry.

Anonymous wrote:OP you're the top end of the "healthy" BMI so perhaps he is being pre-emptive and wanting to stop you going over into "overweight" and all that comes with that.

I don't think this is an insult as some people are suggesting, or entirely unreasonable. It's not like he said "lose 30lbs" which would be much harder work. I know, I did that last year.

Honestly, 7-8 for a moderately healthy person at a reasonable weight is much much harder to lose than 30 for an obese person. Not discounting all the hard work you did--and congratulations. But when one is not overweight and already has a moderately caloric intake, losing a few pounds is really tough. You have to go to under 1000 calories a day and that is not easy. I feel you OP!

Anonymous wrote:I’d find a new doctor due to the lack of clear communication (you should understand his concern before the appointment ends) and his flippant attitude. Your health issues will only increase and you want a good, at least trusting, relationship with your doctor.

Clearly between this doc and patient, there was a breakdown of communication.