Friday, February 13, 2009

Weight, appearance and employment

Yesterday I saw a patient who has been coming to our clinic off and on over several years. When he focuses and places high priority on hiw weight loss efforts, his achieves aggresive weight loss. However, when he becomes distracted with work and home issues, he starts returning to old behavior patterns and the weight goes back on.

He was telling me that his company is unfortunately undergoing layoffs and he is very concerned that his weight may play a role in whether he is retained or not. The patient is in the sales division and he lamented to me yesterday that he feels his weight problem places him in a competitive disadvantage compared to his colleagues that maintain a healthier weight. The reasons are several: 1-perhaps the management will fret that an overweight employee may lose more time at work secondary to medcial conditions 2- if the overweight employee has several health issues already such as hypertension, diabetes, etc. health insurance premiums will go up for the company as a whole and 3- perhaps clients are more apt to "buy" from aesthetically "more in shape" salespeople as opposed to overweight ones.

The above rationale, as hurtful as it seems, is not too far off base. In this very challenging economic period, it can only help your job status to maintain as healthy an appearance as possible. Yet another great reason to keep in the zone and reach your weight loss goals.

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