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I don’t usually use this account to talk about myself but: today’s obesity strategy has riled me a little and I want to talk about why.
I have polycystic ovary syndrome. I’ve spent my life trying to lose weight on an “eat less move more” basis. I’ve felt stupid and worthless many times for having no success.
I’ve been *made* to feel that way by approaches like this. I was sent on a dietetics course which covered subjects like “how to read food labels” and “how to do your weekly shop.”
I’m *educated* and health literate. That isn’t the problem. I can read. I can count calories. I can ensure that I burn more than I eat. But somehow that has never worked for me.
Endocrinologists and gynaecologists have told me a) just lose weight and b) we have no interest in PCOS if you have 4 periods a year. I bled continuously from April 2019 to April 2020, 2 months after my mirena coil was eventually inserted.
Now I find out, from HCPs with an interest in PCOS (endocrinologists, dieticians & physios online), that there’s loads I can do. That cortisol causes problems & high intensity exercise causes worsened insulin resistance in PCOS patients...
... and gluten and dairy cause raised cortisol/worse IR too. So I cut gluten and dairy and started gentle exercise instead.
And here I am, losing 2-3lb/week.
My point is that it’s all well and good to tell GPs to prescribe cycling to their obese patients. It’ll help some people. It won’t help others, and for some it may be counterproductive.
My point is that it’s all well and good to tell GPs to prescribe cycling to their obese patients. It’ll help some people. It won’t help others, and for some it may be counterproductive.
This isn’t good health promotion. There isn’t a one size fits all approach to obesity that works. Each person has multiple contributing factors. Handing everyone a bike isn’t the right answer for everyone.
So instead, as HCPs, surely what we need to do is find out what these factors are and how we can overcome them. This lack of interest in the causes of obesity serves no one. Telling me no one has any interest in PCOS did not help me.
Telling me to do HIIT workouts and count calories and macros didn’t help me.
Finding someone willing to help me address the root cause of my problem is what’s helped. Here I am, weight falling off, less hair growing on my face, more hair growing on my head...
Finding someone willing to help me address the root cause of my problem is what’s helped. Here I am, weight falling off, less hair growing on my face, more hair growing on my head...
Wondering why no one was bothered enough to support me to find answers before (y’know, at any time in the last 23 years).
As HCPs, we have to be better than this.
As HCPs, we have to be better than this.
