How would you feel if your GP kept sending you messages encouraging you to eat less and lose weight?

The last time I saw my doctor, he was morbidly obese. When they practice what they preach, I will gladly read their texts. And what about the cost of all these texts!

This would make me mad and I would definitely not pay any heed to being lectured by my doctors via text or e mail or in fact in person!
I am sick to death with the obsession with weight loss that the NHS has; any tiny ailement they grill you about your weight. Got a cold? It’s because you are fat! Broken your arm? Must be because you are obese! Etc etc.
I went to my GP over a few years due to unexplained weight gain, and a huge stomach.I got no examination, only endless lectures about my weight and told to eat less and exercise more. I tried to loose weight by half starving myself which was the only thing which made any difference! I stopped going to the doctors in the end unless I absolutely was desperate about something, because I was fed up with lectures; I even got a lecture going for my smear test which nearly put me off going the next year!! (In itself potentially life threatening if cancer cells are missed!)
in the end a young locum doctor that saw me when I went about a cough, spotted that my stomach was too big against my over all shape and discovered that I had a huge tumour which in fact was a rare form of cancer in my abdomen! I had this removed in the spring and the “weight” dropped off!
I feel that the obsession with focusing on weight without investigating other possible reasons for weight gain can lead to dangerous miss diagnosis that in my case nearly killed me! Years of stupid GP lectures about weight in stead of investigating why my stomach had swelled up; ignoring me telling them that I eat a healthy vegetarian diet, walked everywhere don’t smoke and never had done so and was a rare drinker made no difference to them!

It would come from an IT company who wants to sell their automated system and some health quango thinking it might work. As it’s tax payers money we can afford it.

Unless you have already opted in to receive text messages from your practice, this would be a breach of GDPR regulations, and you could remind them of the 4% of income fine! If you have opted in you are perfectly entitled to opt out again if they start spamming you. Automated response to a code on your notes, GP would have nothing to do with it.

Fortunately our GP practice has no heavily overweight staff at all that I can see, not even the receptionists. I would find it difficult not to say something if a fat GP or nurse tried to lecture me about my weight. I was just into the obese category a couple of years ago, have lost weight and now firmly back in overweight category. I know I need to lose another 20 pounds or so and am working on it - I don't need to be lectured by medical professionals about it. I tend to raise the subject myself in appointments - recently diagnosed with high blood pressure despite the weight loss, my BP was better before I lost weight so go figure! I'd just ignore texts like this from my GP, I like the text system for appointment reminders but detest being asked what I thought about the practise afterwards - I ignore these as well

We visit a GP when we have a heath issue or are we just bored with nothing better to do.
Surely if we value our heath then it is in our own interest we take a GP advice. How irresponsible to say we don't need reminding we are overweight or maybe we smoke too much and should cut back? as clearly and should we suddenly develop a serious health issue that is or could be related to our life style then who is our first port of call ?.

They would be instantly blocked

i would like to be reminded( not nagged) to loose weight and eat healthy! i have a lovely nurse and she has a lovely way with her work with patients

I'd be very pleased. Unless I was just about to have a few glasses of wine and some junk food!

Some practical solutions to the temptations would be welcome. Not just guilt tripping nagging.

I saw my GP 12 weeks ago because my hip was hurting. He examined my hip, told me he would book an X-ray and then asked me to step on the scales. With absolutely no suprise he told me my excess weight was not helping my hip and suggested I join Weight Watchers. Well, I did as requested and I’ve lost 15 lbs. I still have a way to go but it is thanks to my GP nudging me in the right direction that I’ve finally done something to tackle my weight problem. So, I think it is a good idea for GP’s to intervene. The NHS cannot cope with the additional strain caused by obesity and we, as responsible adults need to take care of our own bodies.

If my GP bombarded me with messages telling me to cut down etc, I would regard them as spam! My email client allows me to filter out these sort of messages and take appropriate action!

Anyway, he knows my feeling on BMI and it's abuse by the medical profession.

The trouble is, I think, that such a lot of the ‘advice’ Is patronising. There’s a heart age NHS quiz, which is really crude and takes no account of exercise and diet.

Most of the GPs and nurse practitioners I’ve seen could do with losing a few pounds and toning up.

If reminders like this were effective I would expect for all GPs and their staff to have healthy BMIs, to eat 5 a day, exercise regularly and not to smoke or drink alcohol. If it doesn’t work for themselves and their staff it’s clearly a waste of time and resources to roll it out to patients.

My cholesterol was/is high and I was told to cut out milk, yogurts, cheese, eggs etc etc. Had a skin lesion which they thought was a cancer - but wasn’t in the end however told to keep out of the sun or covered up.

Fast forward a couple of years and I have discovered I’ve got osteoporosis and they are now telling me to eat plenty of the above and get sun on my skin! Can’t win, so I’m thinking now, sod it and doing my own thing!

I would be offended and insulted at such personal comments. I do not believe many of us who have a modicum of grey matter do not know when we are overweight/ over-smoking/ over-drinking/ over-anything and we do not need reminding. Many of us wake up daily with resolve to correct the 'whatever' and I feel any reference to same by another, professional or otherwise, would aggravate the problem rather than aid it. Nope, another ineffective bit of nonsense thought out by people who really should know better. However, if practices are to be paid a premium for doing this, I have no doubt it will take place.

I would do the same as I do with all unsolicited texts or emails, I'd delete them. I know I'm a bit overweight and should exercise more but it's my choice whether to do something about it, so DON'T harass me with unwanted reminders!

I’m going to be popular then !
Being obese is damaging to your health. It’s a simple fact.
It make# life difficult wherever you go, be it sitting on standard seats on public transport trains /planes anything.
It causes other health issues to become more difficult to manage or occur.
And when do you ever hear people proudly boasting about how much they’ve managed to put on this week ....
It’s all about good health and weight maintenance.
I have an under active thyroid, I have been pre diabetic but I’m not going to allow obesity get me too. (Yes I’ve had children and have a mummy tummy)
Moderation in all things and don’t let anything get you!

As I haven't had and don't have any of the ailments that would be considered suitable for discussion in the round, I don't care what he does.

My late mother used to regularly make remarks about my weight as if I hadn't noticed. Since much of my problem was due to 'comfort eating' her remarks usually sent me heading for the biscuit tin or my stash of chocolate. Texts of this type would, I'm sure, have the same effect. I've lost about 3 stones over the last few years, some actual fat and some the excess fluid that I carried on my swollen legs, which disappeared when I was put on diuretic tablets. I seem to be unable to shift more weight, although I still need to lose some, but I refuse to 'diet' as I just get obsessed with food and become miserable, resulting in the aforementioned 'comfort eating'. The loss of the 3 stones and the acquisition of a fitbit have made me much more active but my weight refuses to come down further.
As for GP's knowing their patients and the reverse, my GP left last year and no-one has told me who I'm now registered with now. I seem to see a different person every time I go.

You could nag, suggest or show evidence to my daughter but she will never ever change. Me, I have my Surgery I don't have a mobile phone, so no texts for me.

MissAdventure:

They could just send one word every now and then - 'fatty'


They might as well do that with me, but the message is coming across loud and clear during appointments - everything I have wrong with me is a symptom of FOLS (Fat Old Lady Syndrome].

They don't have my mobile number

Well as I don't drink or smoke and can't exercise due to my leg he'd be wasting his time, not to mention his weight problem is far worse than mine. My weight fluctuates by a stone at random, nothing I do seems to cause it but who knows. I eat healthily and always have, I'm as active as I can be, if anything I seem to overdue it quite frequently but I'm not good at asking for help and prefer to do things for myself.

There are some of us engaged with trying to help a member of their own family and doing it carefully at the right time and in the right way because they know that person well. If the family member started getting messages like this it would send everything back to square one.

Not to mention all those people who are struggling with other health problems or family problems or mental health problems for whom emails like these could be the final straw.