To expect fat nurses to have some insight?.

Yeah sure and you can't be a good social worker if you don't have kids, you can't be a doctor or nurse if you ever drink more than the recommended amount or ever smoke anything ever. You can't be a driving instructor if you've ever had points on your licence....

Many years ago I had a tiny Austrian GP - about 4"6' and very rotund
I was overweight - probably a size 14, and heavy because I did a lot of weight training.
Every time I saw her she'd insist on weighing me, and shriek "it's not fair, if I was as heavy as you I would be very very fat"
Nearly 40 years ago, but I can still hear her voice ringing in my head :)

Yabu. I work in health care, and quite closely with a number of consultant level Dr's. One is a very overweight cardiologist. He's a fucking phenomenal Dr, and knows full well the risks of his obesity in relation to heart health. He has to advise his overweight patients to try and loose weight because it is part of his job. He doesn't have to explain to them why he is overweight himself.

Edit: he is overweight because he had thyroid cancer so has no thyroid, and the levels that the NHS deem acceptable are laughabley low compared to international standards. So his dose of thyroxine is high enough to keep him alive but low enough that he is always cold his hair and nails are thin and brittle and he struggles with his weight

It's a tricky one because we are less trusting of professionals that don't adhere to their own advice... Eg a dentist with bad teeth... I do marketing if I had a terrible website people wouldn't trust me as much. But then I don't know what the answer is as you couldn't say in order to be a nurse you must be able to run 5k, be under 25 bmi, eat 5 fruit and veg a day etc.... Knowing something is right doesn't always make you do it!

I never cease to be amazed at the way women judge each other.

Here we go again…not even a day has passed since the last fat bashing thread.

Ahaha god my BED is loving this.
Sorry I’m fat, hope I’m skilled enough to care for dying loved ones with more kindness and dignity than you grace us with. Christ.

Such defensiveness.

my friend is …a larger lady. She is always complaining that every time she sees a doctor they go on about her weight. “Everything is always attributed to my weight”

I mean she is a size 28 and 5’2. It is quite feasible this is actually damaging her health. But rather than listen to the advice and actually taking some action, she just shuts it all down and pretends it’s some kind of mad conspiracy.

Seriously though! I really don’t understand how the OP expects them to ‘admit’ anything. How else would they start the sentence😂

When I trained, there were upper and lower weight limits for entry, based on the sound principle that a nurse has to be healthy to do the job, and that you were hardly going to be credible giving dietary advice if you were under/overweight.

Ah yes let’s return to the days when a woman’s competence was directly related to her physical appearance.

YABU. Health has more to do with behaviours than body size. An overweight person who walks every day and has an overall healthy diet is likely to have better health markers than a skinny person who never exercises and eats loads of junk. There are many reasons why people have bigger bodies and you shouldnt make snap judgements and assume they don't know what they're talking about.

No, you don't know why they are overweight. Could be a health issue but that doesn't stop them from knowing about a healthy diet, so can of course advice you on that.

YABU. We're all human. They are trained to a high degree but that doesn't stop them falling in the same traps that many of us do. Good luck on a skinny nurse recruitment

Previous comments would contradict you.
Apparently anyone overweight on MN is ill, they can't just be overeating although the NHS cites that as the greatest cause of obesity.

I think the UK is becoming a fat nation through bad eating habits and health professionals often have to eat when there's time which makes for bad dietary choices.

We all need to insist on a relaxed meal time daily as in France. Fresh food, a decent break to eat in and cut out upf's and snacking.

Standard advice is

1. Don't smoke
2. Don't drink excessive alcohol
3. Take regular exercise
4. Eat lots of fresh fruit and vegetable and not too much red or processed meat
5. Maintain a healthy body weight.

4/5 here. I acknowledge many of us aren't perfect

When I trained, there were upper and lower weight limits for entry, based on the sound principle that a nurse has to be healthy to do the job, and that you were hardly going to be credible giving dietary advice if you were under/overweight.

The majority of the overweight nurses I knew were slim or “average” build before joining nursing so that policy wouldn’t have prevented any of them from joining.

End of the day they’re nurses giving some basic nutritional advice which is probably written on a leaflet /website and will be the same advice given by a nurse of any size 🤦
It’s not as if they are giving you their own personal tips they’ve written down lol (and even then I wouldn’t necessarily write someone off due to their weight).

I take some of the NHS health advice with a pinch of salt for my own reasons (eg BMI is not fit for purpose IMO and they don’t stress the important of additional vit D for certain communities etc ) but it’s got zero to do with the size of the medical professional giving me that advice.

And again an overweight nurse may have lost weight before and be still in the process of doing so. You don’t know what their current eating habits are just from looking at them.

So by this logic if you go to see a marriage counsellor I assume you will be checking to make sure they are in a happy marriage as someone who is widowed, single or cohabiting wouldn’t be capable of doing their job.

So many Mumsnetters are obsessed with the weight and body size of other women. It's so weird.

I think if you’re clued up on nutrition, exercise and healthy eating you don’t need dietary advice from the NHS. Are they still advising people to eat ultra processed margarine versus butter?

I guess some people are not educated on this though and need the advice.

They are doing their jobs, are overworked and underpaid. The last thing they need is another obnoxious patient!

You could have just taken the info and nodded along no need for a thread on mn on how you think it's hypocritical.

How ironic that people who sneer at and judge ‘fat’ people reveal their own, much worse, ugliness.

My hairdresser is bald. Not sure most of them cut their own hair anyway 😁

Many in health care work such long hours and deal with such stress that they often have unhealthy coping mechanisms.

It's a case of do as I say not as I do

If l was working in the NhS atm l’d probably be comfort eating.

Be grateful someone was there to give you advice. Health fascism at its finest.