Yes. My doctor did suggest that I lose weight. He didn't really give me any real HELP or SUGGESTIONS on how I was to do that, other than to eat less and move more.

So, I just stopped going to the doctor. aneleh is right - that is a common solution for many of us. Honestly, I didn't go back for 7 years - when I had lost almost all of the weight. Stupid actions from an otherwise intelligent chickie.

I'm actually very good friends with our family GP and I came right out and asked him after I started losing weight why he never lectured me on weight loss. He said something like.."Well Lori, it's like this; I'm damned if I do and damned if I don't, I don't comment on my adult patients weight unless I see an immediate threat or my advice is asked, if they are mature responsible adults they know they need to lose weight.

I guess that's why I always like him, he didn't lecture and always treated me like an adult.

My doctor told me at every physical. And I'm not that oveweight.

Count me in as another who avoids going to the doctor as much as possible because I don't need a lecture.

I KNOW I'm fat, and I've tried countless times to lose. If you have some actual HELPFUL advice for me, ok. Otherwise, be quiet.

I'm actually surprised that more people in my life, friends and family as well as physicians never commented on my rise to 200 lbs. One doctor, my gynocologist, did mention that I had gained 20 lbs in a year once, I remember my face going bright red - someone mentioned the ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM, what everyone could see and no one ever mentioned.

Would I have been ready, would I have wanted to face the truth before I was ready? That I was slowly but certainly eating my way into serious obesity? My weight went up every year and none of my avoiding the scale or avoiding looking at myself naked or "head in the sand" activity made me any thinner.

My doctor mentioned it several years ago. He did it tactfully and compassionately (I had a young kid then and he said he knew it was very difficult for busy mothers to lose weight but the health benefits of losing just 10 lbs yada yada...).

Despite that, his effort backfired. I am extremely contrary and I wasn't ready to lose weight for myself at that point (and I was in denial despite his talk). I subsequently gained a bunch more weight and simply avoided getting any routine physicals. (So my case doesn't seem to provide much motivation for a doctor to continue to give weight loss advice.)

After losing 35+ lbs last year, I finally felt comfortable enough to schedule another routine for early this year. My weight loss went unremarked, which was a bit of a bummer, but totally my own fault.

My doctor ALWAYS find a way to bring my weight into my visit. It's annoying. I could have the flu and he'll find a way to blame it on my weight. I finally had to tell him to cut it out. I know I'm fat. I don't need the constant reminder.

Well Im MUCH MUCH MUCH heavier than you were when you started BUT
every freaking time Id go to the Urgent Care places Id have to hear about my weight! I mean Im not stupid I know Im very overweight but I have a cold so could you please treat me for my cold. My BP was always great until recently so it wasnt that.
The last 2 times I went I do understand it a lil more since my bp was high at both. But I do kinda agree with the PP I hate to stereotype but the foreign DRs Ive had were much more mouthy about the fact that I needed to lose weight than the others.

I used to be 165 as well, but I can't remember any doctor saying anything (I live in France, not in the US). As an overweight child, some told my parents 'keep an eye on her weight', but it was never said with any kind of urgency to it. What's interesting though is that the various doctors I've gone to throughout my adult life never mentioned me having to lose weight, and yet they always encouraged me if they noticed I had lost a few pounds. I think the only doc who said something (nicely) was the one I had to see for work, because I once gained ~20 lbs in one year, and she thought it was a lot. (She's the same doc who, a few years later, also said "you don't need to tell me you've taken on sports: I can see it just by your heart BPM" ^^.)

Now I'm told to 'control' my weight, meaning 'just don't regain anything', but that's because of my Factor V Leiden crap.

This is what happened to me as well. I was at the gyn, and I got on the scale and she said that I had gained 20 lbs since my appointment one year before. I honestly had no idea until that moment. That was one of the major wake up calls that spurred me into losing weight.

I can't blame some doctors for not bringing it up though -- 2/3 of all Americans are overweight or obese! You'd be having the conversation CONSTANTLY with almost all of your patients, and so few of them would take the information seriously and do something about it. And in worst-case scenarios you could lose your patient base or get sued. So why bother? Ethics?

When I got my health insurance, finally, this year and I went to the doctor I was prepared. I came into my checkup with my medical history, my weight issues, my progress, and a few core issues I needed advice and help with. I can say that as soon as I brought up my weight, my doctor smiled and really relaxed. She saw right away that I was an open person and this topic was open for discussion.

I think people, in general, don't want to be lectured. I mean a person knows if they are overweight or obese. It is a sensitive issue for most people and personally in my life when someone told me I was huge it actually made things worse for me. That was then and this is now. Taking my own issues into myself and putting them on the table for people, I have found, creates a positive environment, especially with doctors.

You want your doctor to be honest, but you also want a person to have some tact and class and not just be rude or mean. Yet, you also want your doctor to focus on the priority issues and for some people the weight is not. If you're overweight, but generally healthy otherwise it may not be something that a doctor feels they need to focus on during your time with them. I mean they have limited time, are also focused on other patients, and there is the sensitivity of the issue..i can see why it isn't mentioned.

For someone who's weight is part of other health issues, I can see it being mentioned more often. Well I hope it is...I mean when I was 340 + pounds doctors told me to loose weight. "You need to loose weight...this isn't good."

It wasn't the wake up call for me though...that came from myself.

I think this day in age, you'd pretty much have to be living under a rock to not know that being overweight/obese has its consequences. I guess I am a big believer in personal responsibility. You take a gamble with your health when you become overweight/obese and choose to stay that way. No amount of lecturing from a doctor will change some people's minds...they have to be ready to take the first step.

On the other hand, recently, studies have come out saying that some overweight people are healthier than those of normal weights. I think of my brother and I in this instance. I am still considered obese by BMI standards, but a recent physical found me to be in 100% excellent health. My brother, on the other hand, has been skinny his entire life, and his physical discovered high cholesterol and triglycerides. So perhaps part of a doctor's hesitancy to bring up the overweight factor is that more often that not, being overweight is just one part of the picture.

My doctor brought it up after a few exams, he was gentle about it. When I injured my knee, he said about the only thing I could do for it was these simple exercises and also it would help to lose weight. He said he would like to see me get down to 185 and that it would probably take me a year to lose it, about a pound a week. He told me to reduce my caloric consumption by 500 cals a day and to start exercising. He also gave me a brochure. The next time I saw him, I had lost a little weight (like 8 pounds) and he recognized that and said I was on the right track. I am pleased with the way he handled it all.

I never had a doctor tell me to lose weight until I mentioned that I wanted to lower my blood pressure and he said it should help, even if I don't lose a lot. (By the way, for me, it didn't make any difference at all, even 80 pounds later it's like I'm gonna blow a gasket.)

I do wonder if a doctor mentioned something to my parent in my childhood because they took me to see a doctor and a nutritionist. Despite adding exercise and writing down everything I ate for him to look over, my weight went up instead of down. He seemed a bit stumped, so I told my parents I didn't want to bother any more. In retrospect, he should have run blood tests at that point. He just assumed I was lying.