Tv show This morning debate - new idea about doctors calling 'fat' instead of obese.

kmcxx

Member
Just watching this morning, theres currently a debate about whether doctors should call patients 'too fat' to shock people into loosing weight, instead of calling people obese or overweight.

Wondering what peoples views are on this?
Its getting heated on this morning! Anyone else watching?

xxx
 
I heard that on the news earlier in the week - it made me laugh a bit to think that doctor's were being warned not to hurt people's feelings by calling them 'fat'. I'd rather be fat than obese any day. Obese has such a sound of finality to it ... it can sound like there's too big a hurdle to climb to lose weight, so why bother!
 
I think doctors should keep using the health related terms: overweight and obese. Because even "fat" is very subjective. I know average people who are called fat and obese people who can be seen for some as average...
Overweight and obese are more concrete, I think.
 
I think some doctors should be told not to hurt patients feelings - last thing you would do is go back for help if you felt your doctor was having a go at you... at the end of the day if someone wants to stay fat/ overweight/obese it's up to them, it isnt actually a crime (some doctors think it is though and wil blame weight on anything you see them for even if it's not related )... I also don't think people need to be told what class of heavy they are, as in a doctor telling you youre obese, I think we know.

They should maybe focus on talking more about what the patient wants to weigh as a number, more than BMI.
 
Personally I find the entire discussion very patronising and I would absolutely love to meet the genius doctor or whoever who came up with the idea that started this debate :rolleyes:.

I know the consensus seems to be that fat people are also stupid (as well as hideous and lazy), but even a stupid fat person couldn't fail to notice that they're fat, it's not as if we're not reminded often enough. There is huge pressure to be thin, especially among women, and it seems to me that it is the norm for any woman over a size 12 to think she's fat rather than us all wandering around, deluding ourselves that we're skinny. So, thanks doctor, but I know I'm fat, the fact that I own a mirror, a set of scales and a wardrobe full of size 18 clothes is enough to tell me that! I agree that doctors should use medical terms that correspond to health, but my overwhelming feeling is that the entire debate is ludicrous! :D

Phew, sorry for the rant! :ashamed0005:

 
I'm just over the overweight/obese border on the side of obese, not sure whether I prefer to be called obese or fat, both have very negative connotations.
 
I'm not sure how much of a difference it would make whether to say someone is fat/obese etc.

I would hope that if someone turned up to their GP with health related problems that were clearly linked to an excess of weight they would be provided with some advice and direction to reducing their weight.

That said, I believe in calling a spade, a spade e.g. "Unless you reduce the amount of fat tissue you're carrying around your health will continue to be at risk".

I personally find fact being fat with its consequent effects on hobbies and general day to day comfort has more an impact on my feelings than anyone saying I'm fat...
 
i think obese is an awful word. It's also specific aand we all knows what it means. When I first entered the obese zone and I wen tto my doctor to discuss my weight gain, the GP said don't be silly, you look lovely! But the weigh carried on piling on and I found myself in the morbidly obese zone and a different GP told me that I was heading the right way to being dead and that I needed to find a way of addressing the problem. I went home and cried, but it was the shock I needed.

I'm now just obese again and heading the right way and looking forward to overweight. I find these catagories useful. I was "fat" when i was 4 stone heavier, I will still be "fat" when I'm 4 stone lighter. I think catagories help us get back on track "fat" is too vague.
 
I'd rather they say overweight, than fat..even though I am fat..I like to think of myself more as overweight. I have been made so upset by doctors and nurses in the past talking to me about my weight. One nurse was soo harsh she even said 'there were no fat people in concentration camps'...e.g. go starve yourself fatty. :/ Not cool. I had another that was so condescending saying 'would your mother like it if you had a stroke'....its not cool..i dont want to be talked to like a child but i want some respect you know..the facts.
 
Personally, i couldnt care less...being overweight is like an addiction, an illness..something that once we are all successful are going to have to be so careful not to relapse with for the rest of our lives..I value my quality of life and my future more than the choice of words used to describe what was in the long term going to destroy it.So as long as my Dr was acting in my best interests, which is their job..I really wouldnt care...:) xx
 
Funny really, I know I am overweight, fat or obese or even all 3 so having someone else, doctor or not point this out wouldnt offend me at all. Sometimes the truth does hurt.....

But I do agree with doctors should consider the feelings of their patients, not everyone is as thick skinned as I can be and knowing they are going to bring up their weight may stop some people getting the help the need
 
I can agree with that...you would like to think though with all their education and training that they would use sound judgement when dealing with people needing the truth..lets be honest though, i dont think there are a lot of people that lose weight because they are TOLD to! in my experience i have always had to be in the perfect frame of mind and no matter who told me or how..i was going to do it when i was ready. xx
 
I don't like the term obese but it is that which has spurred me on, simply being called fat to me means nothing. "Fat cow" was the standard nasty name thing at school and I was size 10 then so now size 22 its water off a ducks back. Obese on the other hand makes me worry... BUT if the doc called me names or had a go at me he wouldn't see me for dust...
 
I don't like either! But if I had to choose, I suppose I prefer obese. It shocked and frightened me to learn I was obese. Now I'm just overweight :D
 
If we want to shock ourselves all we need is step in front of a mirror...

Fatty or obese is the same thing, you can use all euphemism that you want but the mirror does not lie.

And I will only stop dieting when I can look at it and smile. ;-)
 
tbh i dont care what the doctors call me, i went to the doctors last year as i was having panic attacks, they straight a way attributed it to me being obese, AND made a big thing of it putting me down for it, THEN did not want to prescribe me the pills to calm me down because it could make me put more weight on.. all through my life my problems have straight a way been put down to weight and being told if i were skinnier it would not happen!
 
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