The shame, the stigma, the hypocrisy.
“It doesn’t matter what I eat or how I exercise, nothing ever changes!”
“No matter what I do, I just can’t lose the weight”
“I know I need to lose weight, but I can’t”
My heart break…
This is a common theme for many of my patients. We know women want to more than to talk about their weight, they want solutions to this issue. It’s not like having weight management issues is not visible and you aren’t reminded of it everyday.
People who are overweight are discriminated against in the medical field as well as in society. I have heard crass statements depicting patients as “slobs”, “lazy”, or “gross”. I typically chart notes mandating a patient to “lose weight” rather than a true plan of care. Or worse, diagnosis codes “Obesity due to excess calories.” Even though we know weight loss is a chronic, lifelong disease we do not treat it the same way we treat other chronic health issue (like diabetes or hypertension). It’s no wonder that by the time I see a patient they feel defeated and hopeless.
Unfortunately, many people who have a Body Mass Index (BMI) greater than 25 (medically this is considered overweight) internalize these stigmas. I hate using the word “obesity” because they conjure images of those who do not match the societal “ideal body type”. It ostracizes our patients into a space that is lonely and often uncared for. To them, it feels like no one else understands what they are going through…and they are right, most people don’t.
But I do. It’s different in medical weight loss . We know no patient wakes up in the morning and decides to be overweight. We understand weight management is not just calories in – calories out = weight loss. Every patient’s weight loss journey is individual, personalized, and a powerful transformation. This includes mine.
Here’s my call to action:
It’s time to stop trying yo-yo and fad diets…
It’s time to try something based in science…
It’s time to transform your life…
Let me help you.
