I went to the doctor earlier this week. During the usual check-up, she asked about my chronic fatigue. When I said it hadn't improved, she said "you'll have to lose weight".
As a practitioner of Health at Every Size, this upset me. Especially because she knows I practice HAES, that I do exercise and eat healthy, and my weight is still high (not to mention a non-issue).
So when she took my blood pressure, it was slightly elevated. I've never had high blood pressure, so I assume it's from stress (from our chat). Here's the conversation that ensued:
Dr: You have high blood pressure. You have to lose weight.
Me: There's no proof weight loss cures high blood pressure. What would you tell a thin person to do?
Dr: But you're not thin.
Me; At my smallest, 120-something pounds, I didn't have high blood pressure. I was told to lose weight but I didn't. AND I didn't develop high blood pressure until 10 years later.
Dr: That's not possible.
Me: Yes it is. Because it happened to me. Check my file.
Dr: Well you still need to lose weight. Your weight is not healthy.
Do these people (who push weight loss) even listen to themselves? Logical, intelligent individuals forgo all that in attempts to force people like me to lose weight, even though there's not a shred of evidence that losing weight will make us healthier. [Diets do not lead to sustained weight loss or health benefits for the majority of people]
It's absurd.
In most of my blog posts I conclude with a paragraph or two that wraps up the issue at hand with a neat little bow. But to be honest, I can't do that with this post, because this issue still isn't resolved. I'm not sure what to do, past lowering my sodium intake and continuing to at healthy and exercise-- and ignore all "you need to lose weight" messages.
Have you experienced this? What did you do?
