In the world of medical professionals, there is not much positivity for fat people. The Body Mass Index (BMI) allows an easy access excuse for doctors to put their foot down with fat people.
Recently, I went to my new primary care doctor for my yearly physical. I was eager for a fresh start, as I am too old to see my pediatrician anymore. My new doctor was very nice, and so were all of the nurses. They were very accommodating when I needed things.
I stepped on the scale for my yearly weighing, and I asked the nurse not to tell me my weight. As someone recovering from an eating disorder, I knew that this number would trigger negative thoughts and feelings. She was kind and did not tell me.
My doctor came in with a smile on her face, and we talked about my past medical history. I even confided in her about my eating disorder. Following this discussion, she starts the annual discussion of how I need to lose weight.
She starts this conversation with the dreaded BMI. Because I am small and have a lot of muscle from cheerleading, I weigh more than my average height is recommended, therefore my BMI says that I am obese. BMI is inaccurate because it is based on the general height and weight of a person. It does not factor in muscle mass, bone density, and overall health of a person.
Continuing on with the conversation, she recommends exercise and eating healthy. As someone that is in recovery from an eating disorder, it is painful to hear this. Becoming smaller should not be the solution to being fat. As long as a person is healthy, their size should not matter. The only time that losing weight should be considered is when the person's weight has an immediate affect on the health problem.
Oftentimes, doctors will refuse to run certain tests based on a person's weight. For example, I have had asthma all of my life but did not know until recently, because my pediatrician wrote it off as being fat. Wanting a doctor not to fat shame even boils down to wanting your doctor to be nice to you.
Fat-shaming can ultimately have life-threatening effects. Whether it being that the doctor will not run certain tests on you, or that the doctor is making assumptions based on physical appearance. Because of this, it is easy to say that a doctor with weight bias is more likely to make a mistake than a doctor that will run tests and care for their patient.
If a person is given a clean bill of health and has goals to stay healthy or improve, why is it our job to shame them into fitting this mold from society?
When a doctor makes a fat-shaming comment to their patient, it may just be an in-the-moment source of care. Ultimately this is life-threatening and a red flag. Thousands of people die every year from misdiagnoses, so this is a life threatening red flag worth noticing. Survival may depend on it.
