weight loss and credibility

When we ask patients "why do you want to lose weight?", we get usually four categories of reasons: 1-health 2-vanity 3-clothes 4-energy.

Yesterday I was discussing a fifth category with a patient: professional credibility

If I was running an auto repair service company, I am not quite certain my clients would care whether I was overweight or not. If I was a chef at a restaurant, similarly, I do not think my customers would think about it for one second if I was overweight.

I don't fix cars and I don't make souffle (did I spell that correctly?) but I do run a weight loss program and it would certainly raise some eyebrows if I was markedly overweight. Simlarly, othe rphysicians that treat patients for internal medicine issues such as diabetes, hypertension etc would have more credibility in recommending to their patients that they lose weight if the physician him or herself was at an appropriate weight.

In the healthcare field, it is important that we, as practitioners, try to set an example for our patients. When I did my internal medicine residency, 3 of the 4 oncologists at Portsmouth Naval Hospital smoked cigarettes. 4 of the 7 cardiologists smoked as well. How ludicrous was that?

No matter what your profession, credibility probably does enhance when we present ourselves in a "healthy" manner. Some professions are more sensitive to this than others.

weight loss and credibility

Yesterday I was asked by a patient why I ran daily, and I honestly asnwered that when I run daily I can eat more and not put on weight. I further explained that for credibility purposes I feel it is important for me to not be dispensing weight loss advice to my patients if I was overweight. I then thought back to the first year we had the program (2002) and Linda and I went to our first meeting of the American Society of Bariatric Physicians. This is the organization of physicians whose specialty is medical weight loss. Linda and I were aghast to see that over 75% of the physicians there were overweight. We both thought how weird that is to have a specialty in weight loss, yet the physician could not control his/her weight.

When I was an internal medicine resident at Portsmouth Naval Hospital from 1981-1984, 4 of the 5 staff cardiologists and 3 of the 4 oncologists were cigarette smokers. These were physicians whose patients lives were ruined by cigarette smoking, yet the physicians themselves did the same lethal behavior pattern.

By no means am I a "model" for my patients...I eat too much pizza, I sometimes skip meals, I eat lots of carbs sometimes...any of you out there that have bumped into me at a restaurant and have seen my plate can certainly tell stories! But, I do get up early every day and run 5 miles...I do avoid alcohol...I rarely will order a dessert after dinner...and most definitely part of my motivation to keep my weight stable is that when I am in front of you, I do not want you to think to yourself: "yeah, you tell me this doc, you tell me that, you dont practice what you preach!!"