In a week that saw Karl Lagerfeld attack singer Adele for her weight, and Golden Globe winning actress Octavia Spencer announce she didn’t feel healthy at her weight, I had four clients encounter the madness of the medical profession about weight issues.
There’s never been a time when there seems to be more controversy about weight. Is it really “bad” or unhealthy to be overweight? Although it’s a common part of the entertainment industry, does it serve any purpose to call someone out for their size, shape or appearance?
Is Your Doctor Helping or Hurting You?
On one hand, it makes sense that there’s a wide range of healthy but, on the other, does the HAES (Health At Every Size) movement help? EVERY SIZE? Yes, we can all get healthier, no matter what our size, but it’s simply not true that you can be healthy at ANY size.
So, what’s the medical profession’s role? Well, right now it’s denial. No less than four clients this week reported unbelievable denial on the part of doctors in their lives.
Example: One client has a parent who is obese, has developed diabetes and a host of other severe problems as a result. Upon seeing the parent’s doctor (because her mother is hospitalized with a severe condition related to the diabetes), my client asked, “Is now a good time to talk to my mother about diet and exercise?’
The doctor crossed the room to the mom, patted her hand and said, “Oh, don’t you worry about that. It’s not your fault!”
Now, that, folks, is medical denial. And most people respect and look to their doctors for truth and help. It’s not happening.
The same patient asked her daughter, “Am I really obese?” She didn’t know. No one had addressed the issue with her, even when she was diagnosed with diabetes.
My own doctor never told me I’d crossed into that territory when I was 242 pounds. Is it unusual? No.
In a study from the Strategies to Overcome and Prevent (STOP) Alliance for Obesity, it was reported:
- 72 percent of doctors said they were not trained to deal with obesity and weight-related issues.
- Only 39 percent of obese adults were ever told by a doctor or other health care provider that they were obese.
I’ve long believed there’s a healthy weight range for each of us. It’s roughly plus/minus 25 pounds on either size of an easy-to-defend weight, or your “natural healthy weight.”
If, say, 165 lbs is a weight where you find it (1) easy to move, (2) easy to do all the activities you like, (3) you have good numbers for all the major health indicators (blood pressure, resting heart rate, cholesterol, blood sugar, etc.), and (4) easy to maintain that weight, that’s likely your “natural healthy weight” or “ideal weight.” It doesn’t have anything to do with what Hollywood splatters on the big screen.
Can you coax the scale lower or higher? Yes, with effort. We have a choice to pursue lower/higher and it may involve struggle and pain.
But, once you cross the line into an area where it is hard to move, uncomfortable in your body, I believe you are doing your body a great deal of harm. Excess weight is hard on joints (ask my knee after 20 years of bearing excess weight!), hard on organ health, especially the pancreas which must monitor and adjust blood sugar levels. It’s hard on the heart to pump extra blood through all the capillaries which supply excess fat with nutrients.
However, many of my clients report excess pressure tends to sabotage the movement towards health. By not accepting a wider range of healthy, we are pushing people to attack their bodies in the hopes of reaching that “ideal” size and the result is more severe obesity when the body fights back with weight regain.
Somewhere, somehow, we have to starting telling the truth about ALL the risks: (1) lack of awareness, (2) dieting, (3) attempting to attain a size that’s not right for your body, (4) the “public” pressure to be thin without a means to achieve it, AND (5) what it takes to achieve healthy, sustainable, permanent weight loss.
