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Home » How to lose weight safely » How to Not Dread Getting Weighed at the Doctor – SELF

In our society, weight is an issue that's fraught with all kinds of complicated stigma and sensitivity. So its understandable that you may not exactly be pumped to have to get weighed at the doctors office. Instagram user Mariah Herrera knows the feeling. But she spotted a sign next to the scale at her doctors office and it made her feel better about the experience.

"This scale will only tell you the numerical value of your gravitational pull," the note read. "It will not tell you how beautiful you are, how much your friends and family love you, or how amazing you are!!" It clearly hit home for Herrera, but it also brings up a crucial issue when it comes to your health care: Whether you're recovering from an eating disorder or you simply feel judged, there are many reasons why being weighed by your doctor is an unpleasant experience. But it doesn't have to beand, in most cases, you don't need to be weighed at all.

Your weight is just one part of a standard overall health assessment, which also includes your blood pressure, temperature, and heart rate, David Cutler, M.D., a family medicine physician at Providence Saint Johns Health Center in Santa Monica, California, tells SELF. So, along with those other measures of your health, changes in weight may be used to help diagnose or keep track of an issue.

However, it's more necessary for some patients than others. For example, if a patient develops high blood pressure and is gaining weight, their doctor may recommend that they try to lose weight to improve their health condition, he explains. On the flip side, a patient who is losing weight may be suffering from a viral infection, gastroenteritis, an overactive thyroid, or a number of other health conditions that might not seem apparent to them.

As Randall Wexler, M.D., M.P.H., a family medicine physician at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, tells SELF, keeping track of weight is especially important for patients who have diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease. So, if you have one of those health conditions, you may have trouble avoiding the scale.

In addition, doctors use weight to figure out the right dosage of certain medications, including blood thinners. The number on the scale can also help your doctor know if youre negatively impacted by a new medicationit could make you gain or lose weight, and it would be tough for your doctor to know if they havent been tracking your weight, Dr. Cutler says.

That said, you certainly don't need to be weighed in every single situation or at every single office visit. If youre seeing your doctor because of the flu, for instance, youre probably OK to skip the scale, as womens health expert Jennifer Wider, M.D., tells SELF. And even if your doctor really does need to weigh you, there are ways to make the experience more comfortable.

For example, its perfectly fine to tell the nurse that youd rather step on the scale backwards so that you dont have to see the number, Dr. Cutler says. You can also ask the nurse not to announce your weight so that you dont have to hear it. And, if you're worried that your weight is going to be focused on during a particular visit, Dr. Cutler says you can also tell your doctor something along the lines of, I know Im overweight, but Id rather talk about this cough that I have during this visit.

And, of course, if you're not comfortable talking about your weight with your doctor, that's usually a sign that you might want to find a new one. If you feel embarrassed or weight-shamed with your health care provider, it is time to find one that you feel more comfortable with," Dr. Wider says. "The doctor should be a person you can confide in safely without feeling judged.

Above all, know this: Your doctor is trying to use your weight as one diagnostic tool in their toolbox and nothing more. This is a piece of information that were trying to use to make you [feel] better, Dr. Cutler says. How could one number possibly capture how awesome you are, anyway?

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How to Not Dread Getting Weighed at the Doctor - SELF

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Home » How to lose weight safely » How to Not Dread Getting Weighed at the Doctor – SELF