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I think my doc wants me to smoke?

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  • I think my doc wants me to smoke?

    I started seeing a new doctor about 2 1/2 years ago when I moved, but he has my medical records for the last 12 years or so. I basically only see him 4 times a year to check up on my health and renew my prescriptions. Well in the last 3 months I have gained 28lbs, and it isn't sitting well on me. By a strange coincidence I haven't had a cigarette in about 3 months. So not really much of a mystery, if every time you want a smoke you put something else in your mouth (minds out of gutters in 3.2.1) you are likely to gain some weight.

    It was all he was focused on. Now he wants to change my medications. NO!!! NO! NO! NO! It has been working well for all this time, I really don't want a change now, I know the kind of hell that not being medicated/improperly medicated can do to me. Leave something that is working alone! But because my medical records show that before I was medicated I was about 60lbs underweight, and the last time I was off them I was about 40lbs overweight when I went back on he thinks it's the medication to blame. It took all my verbal skills to convince him to renew the same doses for another 3 months and to give me a chance to lose the weight.

    It didn't seem to register with him that before I was properly medicated I had been homeless and without money for about 14 months, and wasn't able to eat well, or at all, and it's not a real mystery why I was so underweight. It doesn't seem to sink in that the last time I wasn't on medication was for my pregnancy, and when I went back on them, a couple weeks after giving birth, I had been sitting on my ass, depressed, not exercising and being pregnant for 9 months, so it's not a huge surprise that my weight was up when I started taking them again.

    No, to him weight issues = improperly medicated. So I have three months to lose the weight or he's going to start screwing with my meds. He warned me, over and over and over, about the health dangers of obesity, the difficulties of losing weight at my age, and how it's the WORST THING EVER!!! (NB-I'm probably about 35lbs over my ideal weight) He told me to lose the weight WHATEVER IT TAKES! Quitting smoking is not a good excuse. He hasn't had a cigarette in 50 years and you don't see him going on about it. (He looks about 50 years old). So I'm feeling like if I don't start smoking again immediately I have no chance to lose that much weight in three months. If I don't lose at least 30lbs in three months my life is going to go to hell, and quick.

    Ever feel like a doctor is not making sense?
    Pain and suffering are inevitable...misery is optional.

  • #2
    I'd consider changing doctors. This one is obviously not listening to you and taking into account the entire situation. Weight gain has been proven over and over again to be one of the most common side effects of quitting smoking (and also stated as one of the top reasons why people go back to smoking). Given a choice, a person is better off a little heavy and smoke free over being at a good weight and still smoking. This doc doesn't seem to understand that. I don't know that I'd be comfortable continuing to see him.
    At the conclusion of an Irish wedding, the priest said "Everybody please hug the person who has made your life worth living. The bartender was nearly crushed to death.

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    • #3
      it sounds to me this guy has a real issue with weight. i mean i am in fact obese but asides from getting the usual you would be so much healthier if you lost weight talks ive never had something like that happen. i suggest instead of smoking you should just do the diet thing cut out processed foods and eatting out for 3 months and cook everything fresh. most likely you can lose a good 20 pounds in 3 months doing that with some moderate exercise
      Last edited by Sliceanddice; 06-12-2014, 08:11 PM.

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      • #4
        Time to find a new doctor, this one obviously has his own agenda and will be DAMNED before he lets a little thing like facts sway him from his chosen course.
        You're only delaying the inevitable, you run at your own expense. The repo man gets paid to chase you. ~Argabarga

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        • #5
          I can only add that I've seen what smoking-induced lung cancer can do. Out of four people I personally knew who had it, only one is still alive. 'Nuff said.

          Good luck with weight loss. It IS doable, but don't beat yourself up over it. I agree that if you can find a new doc, it might be a good idea.
          When you start at zero, everything's progress.

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          • #6
            I agree with finding a new dr. I am obese, medically speaking, and need to lose about 50 lbs. but otherwise healthy. My dr. is not judgmental, and will say, when I go for my physical, I should try and lose some weight, but that's it. He doens't harp on it, or anything like that.

            He was quite happy this year, as I'd lost almost 15 lbs

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            • #7


              For god's sake don't start smoking again!

              The real question is what is your BMI? Is it healthy if you were underweight previously? Then losing weight might not be the best thing to do.

              A sudden weight gain can be either the result of eating a better diet, or it might be a symptom of a different problem.

              If you really are a bit overweight, then moderate and regular exercise should help you maintain a healthy BMI.

              How tall are you?
              They say that God only gives us what we can handle. Apparently, God thinks I'm a bad ass.

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              • #8
                I don't know BMI but, I'm 5'2" and currently 215lbs, which I realize sounds extremely large, but I'm in about a mens 32 jeans. At 185lbs, which is where I usually am I am in a 26 waist, look pretty good, feel pretty good, probably could lose 5lbs, but that's my usual weight.

                I don't really exercise much, although the last 6 months or so I've been doing some core exercise, but my life and job are pretty active. As an example for a work day I can lift and carry and dump 60lbs about 40 times an hour all day, can usually run up about 14 flights of stairs with my arms full, then I have to walk the rest of the way up because I run out of breath, to run down empty handed and do it again all day, or can spend all day climbing up and down a scaffold or ladder without getting too tired, so I think I'm reasonably fit. (It's not all like that, some days are pretty easy).

                My diet is usually pretty good, other than a sugary coffee addiction, but I started popping mints, werthers and peanuts all day long when I stopped smoking, which I'm pretty sure are to blame for the weight gain. I would chew gum but the aspartame gives me a crazy bad headache and heartburn, and I haven't found any gum without it.
                Pain and suffering are inevitable...misery is optional.

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                • #9
                  Quoth NecessaryCatharsis View Post
                  I would chew gum but the aspartame gives me a crazy bad headache and heartburn, and I haven't found any gum without it.
                  All the mint flavored ones do, and most of the non-mint. Ticks me off, since I LOVE chewing gum. The only one that I found that doesn't have it are all sold in places like Cracker Barrel.. which is the only place I can find the old formula Double Bubble.

                  I second finding a new Dr. If this one isn't listening now, how can you trust them to listen when it's really, really life threatening?
                  If I make no sense, I apologize. I'm constantly interrupted by an actual toddler.

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                  • #10
                    Your work day sounds active enough to me. And unless I've made a bad mental conversion, 30lbs in 3 months is an unhealthily rapid weight loss.

                    Also, what percentage of your weight is fat, and what percentage just plain muscle because you do a very active and muscle-gaining job?
                    Don't try to answer that, though: it's a damned difficult thing to measure. But your waist/hip ratio is a good way of approximating it. I prefer to trust waist/hip ratio to BMI, for this reason. BMI makes no allowance for 'extra' muscle weight.
                    Seshat's self-help guide:
                    1. Would you rather be right, or get the result you want?
                    2. If you're consistently getting results you don't want, change what you do.
                    3. Deal with the situation you have now, however it occurred.
                    4. Accept the consequences of your decisions.

                    "All I want is a pretty girl, a decent meal, and the right to shoot lightning at fools." - Anders, Dragon Age.

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                    • #11
                      In pound terms, you can lose 2-3 pounds a week comfortably, so in thirteen weeks that weight loss is about right. Unless we diet differently over here or something.

                      Rapscallion

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                      • #12
                        Quoth Seshat View Post
                        ...it's a damned difficult thing to measure. But your waist/hip ratio is a good way of approximating it. I prefer to trust waist/hip ratio to BMI, for this reason. BMI makes no allowance for 'extra' muscle weight.
                        BMI is a terrible way to measure health, as it doesn't take into account the fact that muscle is heavier than fat. Using BMI as a measure, most athletes would qualify as obese due to the extra muscle they've built up. Unfortunately it's the "in thing" at the moment.
                        "It is traditional when asking for help or advice to listen to the answers you receive" - RealUnimportant

                        Rev that Engine Louder, I Can't Hear How Small Your Dick Is - Jay 2K Winger

                        The Darwin Awards The best site to visit to restore your faith in instant karma.

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                        • #13
                          Especially the athletes who bulk up a lot with muscle.

                          Some years back I researched the various methods of measuring body fat percentage; and the most reliable basically seemed to be a displacement test: essentially calculate the volume of the patient's body, then stick them in a measured pool of water and get them to float in it, and calculate the displacement. Muscle displaces differently from fat.

                          The most reliable easy method was the waist/hip ratio. Narrowest part of your waist, measured with the tape snug, not pulled tight and not falling loose. Widest part of your hips. Divide the waist measurement into the hip measurement and google for the result.
                          It doesn't matter if you use cm or inches: the ratio will come out the same; after you do the division.

                          There are some problems with waist/hip ratio, such as the fact that some people - especially women - put on more fat at the thigh than at the belly. But thigh fat is less likely to produce diabetes or heart disease than belly fat, so it's a better overall health test than the BMI even just in that one way.

                          Plus, muscular people, even the ones with a greater overall bulk than the general populace, will tend to have narrower waists per unit hip than people with a higher fat percentage.


                          Of course, some doctors will listen to all these arguments and then say 'your BMI lists you as obese, so lose weight'. Just and do your research and consider finding another doctor.


                          NOTE NOTE NOTE: my info above is my memory of research I did some time ago. Please do your own research, and ask medically qualified people who you trust about this topic.
                          Seshat's self-help guide:
                          1. Would you rather be right, or get the result you want?
                          2. If you're consistently getting results you don't want, change what you do.
                          3. Deal with the situation you have now, however it occurred.
                          4. Accept the consequences of your decisions.

                          "All I want is a pretty girl, a decent meal, and the right to shoot lightning at fools." - Anders, Dragon Age.

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                          • #14
                            Quoth NecessaryCatharsis View Post
                            I don't know BMI but, I'm 5'2" and currently 215lbs, which I realize sounds extremely large, but I'm in about a mens 32 jeans. At 185lbs, which is where I usually am I am in a 26 waist, look pretty good, feel pretty good, probably could lose 5lbs, but that's my usual weight.
                            That would put you at a BMI of 39, which is just shy of morbidly obese. Except that your waist size doesn't match your BMI. So BMI is probably not a good measurement of weight for you; you have more muscle than fat but muscle weighs more than fat. You need a percentage of body fat ratio, which a nutritionist can help you with if you're interested.

                            You don't need to lose weight. You are healthy. Your doctor didn't think it through. Explain it to him, and if he won't listen, find another doctor if you can.
                            They say that God only gives us what we can handle. Apparently, God thinks I'm a bad ass.

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