My new GP reset my final goal weight to 190 pounds. I had my goal set at 135, a personal choice. I wanted to weigh what I was on my wedding day. I am a little upset, 190 pounds is still very over weight. I know that I can renegotiate if I get down to 190, but .. hmmmmmm
Anyone else have a doctor reset a weight goal to a higher point?
My new GP reset my final goal weight to 190 pounds. I had my goal set at 135, a personal choice. I wanted to weigh what I was on my wedding day. I am a little upset, 190 pounds is still very over weight. I know that I can renegotiate if I get down to 190, but .. hmmmmmm
Anyone else have a doctor reset a weight goal to a higher point?
I went to a weight loss nutritionist who told me that my goal weight (150) was way too low for a woman of my age and height and why didn't I shoot for 200.
My GP told me he thought I'd have a huge amount of trouble losing more than 10-15 lbs.
I can tell you that the trend among health care professionals is to counsel patients to try to achieve a ten per cent weight loss-- because that is associated with health benefits and is considered "achievable" but I also think that it reflects and underlying belief that significant weight loss-- like down to a healthy BMI for morbidly obese people is unachievable.
I'm thinking your GP would rather have you set what we would call a "mini-goal" and achieve it, then set an impossibly difficult maxi-goal and fail... becasue he (or she) may believe that "nobody" loses 100 lbs.
I know that until I found 3FC, I never believed that I could lose 100 lbs, or learn how to run again, or do any of the many things that I NOW believe I can do thanks to the gracious ladies here.
Oh-- I just realized that down to 190 for you would hardly be a mini-goal-- since you're starting where I started, so 190 is a hundred pounds-- but I still am guessing the concept is the same. Your doc probably was worried that if the number was too huge, you'd end up discouraged.
WHEN you get to 190, you can just ignore the advice and keep going!
I am about your height. As much as I would like to weigh 190lbs today, it isn't my goal. I wonder why he did that? Maybe as a short term goal for you? Did he give you any reasons why? I am just as puzzled as you are.
Interesting - I haven't had anyone tell me either way I guess lol I just went by what felt right to me and what would be considered a normal weight range.
My new GP reset my final goal weight to 190 pounds. I had my goal set at 135, a personal choice. I wanted to weigh what I was on my wedding day. I am a little upset, 190 pounds is still very over weight. I know that I can renegotiate if I get down to 190, but .. hmmmmmm
Anyone else have a doctor reset a weight goal to a higher point?
Did your doctor happen to notice that you are only 5'2" tall ? 190 seems like you would still be overweight.
I bet you're right, uber. That's really sad. We know we can do it! One of the maintainers (I can't remember who?) had mentioned as part of thier story that they shocked thier doctor because he didn't think it was possible. That's my rx for you - show them it can be done! I plan to.
I find that interesting too as I am the height as you are. My doctor did not set a goal weight for me. When I first started I saw an obesity specialist and she did not even want to set a final goal for me. She told me to aim for 10% loss and then we would set another goal. I think ubergirl is right about the doctor not wanting to discourage you. I agree with her too that you should get to 190 and then keep losing if you want to.
I really have not set a final goal for myself. I plan to just keep losing until it seems right. When I started getting under 200 seemed like heaven on earth and I thought that if I got below it, I would be fine. But nope, I am hovering a hair above 200 and I still have loads of fat. I can't see 190 being low enough but, right now, I just have to keep losing.
I am unsure what his motives are--maybe he/she thinks it's more achievable setting it higher. He isn't aware of the power of the 3FC though. For me, I would never allow anyone take my goal and dream of being fit away. If you aren't comfortable with the way he/she is dealing w/you--I would certainly shop for a new doc.
That makes me angry when people try to impose their ideals or preconceived notions on me . I would have told the dr I'm getting to my goal and I let him/her know when I was passing through the 190s.
You work on getting to your goal that you have set and don't let anything or anyone discourage you.
I'm with the OP, they don't know the power of the 3FC Crew.
I've had a doctor reset my weight goal lower and one who reset it higher, and I can tell you that the former was far more traumatic.
It's not as simple as that (but it makes an interesting opening statement).
In 8th grade, I was put on amphetemine diet pills. By junior year, I'd lost 70 lbs (from 225 to 155). My goal was 150. The pills were no longer working, so I was off those (diet pills typically are effective only for several months) and I was struggling like mad to lose the last 5 lbs. In hindsight, I suppose the doctor assumed that I thought I'd gotten complacent thinking I was "close enough", and thought a lower goal might remotivatea me (it had the opposite effect and I gave up entirely, feeling I was doomed to failure so why bother).
I don't blame the doctor, he really was a very caring and empathetic physician. About a decade later, when I was in a car accident with a semi (mild because I was uninjured, for my car it was fatal), and had no one to take me home, this same doctor gave me a ride home (I didn't even realize until later that I didn't have to tell him the address, and he'd only been to the house once for a housecall for my mother five years before - even in the 80's and early 90's most doctors didn't do housecalls - or charged outrageously for them).
I go out of my way to illustrate that the doctor wasn't careless or callous, because it was MY misinterpretation of reality that caused the trauma of his recommendation to lower my goal. Doctors are not infallible and their recommendations are only recommendations not God-gifts written on stone tablets. I wish I'd been older and wiser, and wouldn't have let his goal for me affect my goal for me.
The second goal reset by a doctor occurred a couple years ago when I joined TOPS and needed a goal slip (TOPS is usually pretty flexible about when you provide your goal slip, but I wanted to get it done so I had the goal in mind).
My doctor asked what I wanted my goal to be, and I suggested 200 lbs (still obese). The doctor raised his eyebrow, and asked "are you sure about that." I explained that I thought I'd try to get to 200 lbs and maybe try to maintain it for a while before deciding whether I thought I could lose more.
He smiled and said he meant "the other direction," and suggested 250 (still morbidly obese), and we agreed on that for my TOPS goal slip. I was actually relieved to have a doctor who didn't have much more stringent goals for me than I had for myself. It didn't make me feel like I had to stop or should at 250 lbs.
Older and wiser, I was able to see that the doctor's goal for me wasn't as important as my goal for me. Although I'm not yet wise enough to have patience with doctors who do have more stringent goals for me than I do. I had no patience at all for the rheumatologist who insisted that I have wls - and refused to treat me until I'd had a consult with a wls, even though I explained why my gp and I felt I wasn't a good candidate for the surgery. The rheumy insisted that I could find a surgeon willing to do the procedure, and he wouldn't treat me unless I tried to find that surgeon. Yeah, I didn't go back to that doctor.
Yes doctors have knowledge, skills and sometimes wisdom that we lack - or we wouldn't need them at all. But a roofer has knowledge and skills I lack also. When I hire either, I don't surrender my wisdom and common sense when either make reccomendations.
I respect my doctor's opinion, but ultimately I'm in charge. I found it refreshing to have a doctor suggest that I was being overly ambitious, but ultimately it doesn't matter. He could have suggested any weight from 90 lbs to 900 - and it wouldn't have changed my goals for me (it might have changed my opinion of his sanity if he'd chosen "you're fine as you are," or if he'd said "you need to weigh 115 lbs.")
I do trust and respect my current doctor, and when I do get to 250 lbs, I'm sure he will support my decision if I want to keep losing (I don't imagine he'd say "oh no, you're now much too thin to lose any more.")
My neurologist only asks for 10 lbs a year. That doesn't mean that he expects me to stop if I lose those 10 lbs in the first three months.
My ENT (struggling with weight himself) has always said "if you can lose weight, do it," but never stresses a number and just says "do what you can."
None of these doctors (even the first) were "wrong" they just expressed different recommendations. Ultimately YOURS is the most important opinion.
I know I took a lot of words to give a relatively simple opinion, but this has been a bit of a hot button topic for me, because I'd like to prevent anyone from repeating my first mistake - which so often still happens. People giving up because their goal seems impossible. If your goal seems impossible make a smaller goal, get there and then decide if you want to take on more.
I've never had a doctor set a goal weight for me. Sure, they've been happy if I've lost weight (and esp. if lab values, BP, etc. improved). But it's never gone beyond the general concept that weight loss would be a good thing.
I would probably ask the doctor for his or her rationale on why they think that is the right goal for you, but it probably is what others have suggested - fear that something lower than that might seem unachievable and the hope that a significant loss, even if it still left you obese, would be a positive thing.
Like everyone else has suggested, I would agree with treating it as an interim goal. And yes, when you get there, it will be absolutely fantastic that you will have lost over 100 lbs! But like so many others, before finding 3fc, I didn't believe that people could lose that much weight and more. You have a secret weapon your doctor probably doesn't know about. When you surprise him or her by losing that first 100 lbs, I suspect they will be completely supportive of your plans to keep losing!
I do not know your doc's reasoning. I suggest asking why he suggests 190. I (as a fellow 5'2" chick) also suggest ignoring it. Your goal is between you and you. Nobody else can/should tell you what you are capable of. Now, if you were aiming for something unhealthy it would be another story. However, at 5'2" most charts have the healthy weight range being something like 105-135. Aiming for 135 is not unhealthy or unattainable. 190 as one of your mini-goals along the way makes sense to me, but as a final goal it does not make sense to me. My doc asked me what my goal was, he did not tell me what it was. Same thing with my diabetes nurse. They each also asked me why I had set my goal there and when I answered that it was in the middle of the healthy section of charts for 5'2" they were happy with my answer. I would ask the doc why and if he really did mean it as a final goal I would tell him he's nutty and then proceed to prove it to him.
I am an inch taller than you and just under 190. I am looking and feeling better than before I started but I am nowhere near "normal." I've got plenty of extra flab to get rid of. I'm thinking maybe your doctor set it as a temporary goal. Either way, the GP isn't in charge; you are. If 190 doesn't feel done, keep going.
I think the general health care community is now "thinking" that weight loss is virtually impossible without WLS ... I know my doctor does. The last time I saw my doctor he said as much. At the time, he was amazed I had lost 30 pounds, he said most people can't lose 10% of their body weight. (I wonder what he will say next time I visit, as I'm down 70 pounds now and may be approaching the 100 pound mark by that time.)
I have mixed feelings about this trend in health care. I am glad that doctors know it's not easy to lose weight, but I think referring all morbidly obese people for WLS is not right either. There must be some sort of middle ground, the path that many here on 3FC have forged themselves.
I wish that the kind of support offered to those undergoing weight-loss surgery was readily available to those, like me, who want to "do it on their own."
New doctor reset weight goal (higher)
