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Comment by psychlops | Hacker News Reader

It's also rare for a doctor to tell a person they are too fat and to lose weight. The assumption (and most cost effective solution) is that patients just want a prescription for something and be sent on their way.

US healthcare is crisis focused, not health focused.

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> It's also rare for a doctor to tell a person they are too fat and to lose weight.

Genuinely curious... have you ever been an obese person? Every fat person I've known have told me they're constantly shamed about being fat in medical settings, some to the point where they actively avoid going to a doctor anymore because they've given up on anything beyond being told they're fat.

It its a complicating factor in almost every ailment known to humankind. A doctor would be negligent not to address it. There is no healthy level of obesity.

So... you get my confusion and skepticism at this claim that it is "rare" for doctors to bring up obesity to an obese patient!

I'd say I'm obese, and never heard a word about it. Even through covid. I have a friend who is a doctor who has been brutally honest with me (it's appreciated), but even though I've gone to many paid doctors in the northeast US, not a peep.

I don't want to confuse my experience with actual data. Also, I don't think it's shaming if it's a health issue and obesity should be recognized as such.

> It's also rare for a doctor to tell a person they are too fat and to lose weight.

I don't think this is true. Doctors do tell patients if they are overweight, and they do encourage them to make lifestyle changes including losing weight.

Okay, that's fair, I didn't provide data so you responded in kind. So I went to find a study:

"Fewer than one of five overweight patients and slightly over half of obese patients reported being told they were overweight by their provider."

So "rare" is the wrong word.

https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/journal-articl...

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