To expect fat nurses to have some insight?.

[Vikingess]

Just had a routine health check today at my GP surgery. Two nurses - both considerably overweight - dispensing advice on diet. I
am not overweight -AIBU to expect health professionals to demonstrate the the standards they recommended or at least admit to falling short.

You’d have thought wrong then. Again.

I’m assuming you are perfect in everything, especially related to your job. It must be wonderful being so amazing, why even bother with a routine health check, you obviously know it all already!

To be honest you sound like a patronising idiot.

They give out the official guidelines because they have to, end of.

It’s worth noting that tiredness and stress cause weight gain.

Stress can impact thyroid (hormone) function causing weight gain despite efforts to maintain a healthy BMI.

A continual lack of sleep also triggers an innate human response to consume fast releasing sugar from foods as a survival mechanism.

A person working long unsociable hours in a stressful job is therefore at much higher risk of weight gain despite their efforts to be healthy.

Yes, I’m aware of all of this and I’ve experienced it myself.

The link refers to exercise programmes beloved of doctors but discredited (like GET) partly because they tend to be too inflexible for fluctations and used inappropriately. But there’s nothing wrong with encouraging LC/CFS patients to try out different forms of gentle exercise to see what benefits them.

I didn't finish that thought, because that isn't the point I was intending to make. I know from personal experience that being ravenous and knackered are not circumstances in which healthy food choices are made. I'm fortunate not to be in a profession where I find myself in those circumstances frequently.

The point is it does in some people. When I’m very busy and don’t get a chance to eat I lose rather than gain weight - the same is true for many people. It’s normal for people to lose weight at times of high stress - job, divorce, house move, bereavement etc.

🙄

Not if you're taking a tonne of meds for your mental health!

Well it doesn't really.
Police officers for example, commit crime but advocate the law. Does it suddenly mean that their advice to abide by the law becomes inaffective/ bad advice because they don't subscribe to the same advice? Of course it doesn't, It just means for whatever reason that person is not making the best choices for themselves on an individual level.

This thread is full of very uneducated opinions. Food illicits similar actions in the brain as Cocaine. I don't think it would be unreasonable to take a stab in the dark and presume you are dealing with a form of addiction/disordered eating when somebody is severely over weight. It's not just a case of cutting down on calories and eating the right food, they have an entire life and mindset to reform, losing weight would be the easy part.

Which is not the majority. Anyway, I’m off to bed.

I still don’t get all the excuses. You can be tired, run off your feet, stressed, no healthy food available, not able to exercise etc etc but you CAN choose a healthier option. It takes the same time to eat a banana as it does to eat a bar of chocolate. You CHOOSE To eat the chocolate. Too tired to make food when you go home so go to McDonalds, keep your fridge stocked with healthy ready meals which take 5 mins in the microwave which actually takes less time than going through the drive thru. It’s the excuses, so many excuses. ANY eating choice you make can be a healthy one if you want it to be. It’s your CHOICE and yours alone what you put in your gob. I would actually applaud someone who said.. you know what, I don’t like healthy food so I choose not to eat it And that’s why I am fat. That’s nobody’s business but the lame excuses as to why you can’t do that are ridiculous. Some people on this thread are very honest about that and others blame everyone else except themselves. Binge eating disorders are real and many people have them but be honest about it.

But is a lot of nurses.

Binge eating disorders are real and many people have them but be honest about it.

You make BED sound like a choice. People DO admit to having EDs but they’re not believed.

Sometimes you have no choice but to put medication in your 'gob' which causes weight gain.

@Mirabai

Yanbu I'd find it hard to look at them with a straight face

vast majority of overweight people are not fat from taking meds.

No, I am talking about excuses as to WHY they cannot choose something healthier. Stress, overwork, no time, nothing healthy on offer.. blah blah blah. No I have BED and I eat crap food because that’s what my brain wants… huge difference. One is honest and one is not.

Jesus. If this thread is how slim nurses think, I would rather be seen by an overweight nurse.

Honestly I hope all the overweight nurses quit. Would love to see how you'd cope if that happened and you couldn't even get in to see one because there's not enough staff.

@youcantellalotofthingsabouttheflowers
I totally agree with everything you say.
And it frustrates me when people say to me"it's ok for you , you're not overweight"as if it's all so easy. I could dive into a family sized bag of crisps and 6 bars of chocolate right now. It takes an almost overwhelming amount of will power not to. But the difference is, I don't.

Why can’t you take in healthy food from home?

Probably because we are currently so busy and so short staffed that many nights I don't finisn work until 10pm and then either get home at 11pm and straight to bed in order to be on the unit again for my clinic starting at 8.30am so have no time to prepare this amazing lunch I'm supposed to take into work.

Or I just don't bother going home. Like tonight. On call. V busy. O point leaving the unit. So it's the vending machine which, btw, has no healthy options. Of course we should do something about that but it's low on the list of priorities after trying to get through another week.

I hope they don’t but I do hope the judgmental people who have comments about the weight of lifestyle of any HCP gets put to the back of the queue. There are plenty of us who are very appreciative and really couldn’t give a tiny rats ass what their HCP looks like.

It’s even more normal for them to gain weight- like everyone keeps saying different people react differently in different situations- this is what needs looking into, not blaming or shaming people because they react one way not another. I’m not sure what is so hard to understand. The causes of weight gain are complex and multifaceted. We haven’t even touched on complex area of the guy biome