My doctor has always just told me I'm young & basically healthy - he says to watch portions and to exercise regularly. He readily admits he doesn't know much about nutrition. He basically said the most important thing is that it (my plan) works for me and it's something I can do forever.

I agree with Jessica, it's not that I don't know what to do, it's a lack of actually doing it! I think we all know that we shouldn't be eating fast food everyday...yet I did it for years.

This reminds me of something that always cracks me up.

I believe it was two summers ago I was "having trouble losing weight" aka being a whiny brat that it was coming off so slowly. In reality I know it was completely my fault, but I was whining about it so much that my mom was convinced there might be something physically wrong with me (she's got all sorts of health problems so in retrospect it was a good idea to get checked out). They did blood tests for pretty much everything, and everything was fine.

The doctor, who was incidentally a very nice man, suggested that I see a "nutritionalist." Yeah that's right, nutritionalist. When I got home I looked it up in the dictionary to make sure I wasn't saying "nutritionist" all these years incorrectly. But he definitely said it five or six times. Cracks me up.

Other than that, I haven't consulted a doctor about my plan. I've been very lucky to be healthy thus far, but then I'm pretty young, and my plan relies heavily on exercise and I definitely eat plenty. If I were considering a more drastic plan I'd be sure it were supervised.

The more I read, the more I'm astounded at how hard it is for Americans to get ACCESS to reasonable medical care. (We in Canada constantly natter to ourselves about the quality of care here, but at least we can get in the door....)

Anyway, it sounds as if many of you have a history of being your own care managers, and when it's time for the responsible use of real medical procedures, you camp on your designated medic's steps and then take no prisoners! My hat's off to all of you - it's another angle on why weight loss can be so arduous, and an emotional tug-of-war and informational no man's land. Yes, a few of you (and myself) have lucked into more-or-less well informed professional help, but quite a few of you have had to learn enough about advanced nutrition, fitness programs for the joint-challenged, and motivational skill equivalent to doing self-directed cold-turkey detox.... You people are nearly Amazons, and certainly accomplished warriors! I know that partly it's because of the nurture, protection and support that we can all find here, and maybe military metaphors might feel a little too aggressive! But the way so many of you have met the challenge of mediocre medical support, is just awesome!

Oh, and lovelypurple, I do agree that we should try to get an educated second opinion when starting on a weight loss program for life, and you have hit the nail on the head. We each have some health idiosyncracies, and if we all did due diligence before picking a specific program, some of the finer points of certain discussions on this forum would go more smoothly. And we could support each other even better. And we'd be saddled with less personal heartache. And less of us would need those uncommon well-educated doctors!

Who knows, maybe we need to invest a lot of our resources in finding our own right path, before we're ready to do the required changes; the "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger" ethic. Or, maybe, this forum points to a model for a future powerful resource, whenever certain problems become so widespread that the old remedies don't cut it anymore. A sort of "information with heart and soul" kind of thing. Or maybe I should just admit I've been up all night, apologize for talking like an old tripped-out hippy, and glug down some more coffee:coffee: before my weigh-in, huh?

Anyway -- I'm absolutely blown away by the raw determination & success of so many of you! And I WON'T take that back, so there!;)

:carrot: :cb: :broc:

I did not consult my doctor, because I honestly didn't think she could tell me anything I didn't know. She does mention my weight, but when she does, she say, "What are you going to do about it?" Me? Aren't you the one who should be telling ME what I need to do? LOL. And then, all she would probably do is recommend me to something like South Beach (which I'd already read) or refer me to a specialist. I mean, I've known how to lose weight for years. I've been actually doing it for 3 months.

I go to my doctor regularly for blood pressure check ups. He has been telling me for years that I need to get the weight off. When I finally ask what he suggested (this was before my first round of WW back in 2000), he suggested WW, Atkins or Jenny Craig. He offered nothing about nutrition. He does blood work ups about every year or two, and almost acts dissapointed that they all come back good and he has nothing else to complain about. When I lost 70 pounds the first time he lowered my blood pressure medicine but warned me that if I gain it back he'll have to increase it agian. I gained it back. Not the most supportive person in the world, he didn't say much the last time I was in and was 55 pounds lighter than I was at the previous visit. I've considered a new doctor, but he really is pretty good about everything else.