Your doctor is one of the smartest sources for weight-loss help, but an appointment, rarely more than 20 minutes, isn't enough time for adequate advice. What's worse, many doctors aren't good at doling out guidance for their heaviest patients. A study published in the journal Obesity found that doctors showed less empathy when dealing with the overweight and obese. “I have colleagues that are just saying, 'Just lose weight and then come back and see me,' ” says Brunilda Nazario, M.D., an obesity specialist and the associate medical director for WebMD. But she adds that they’d never dare do that for any other chronic condition, “it would be totally unacceptable.”
But doctors should be talking to their patients about weight loss, because they’re well versed on why slimming down matters. “The benefits are huge. Everything from reducing cancer and stroke risk to diabetes and blood pressure. This is about longevity. It’s about helping people live into their nineties, not their sixties and seventies,” says Larry Burchett, MD, a California-based physician and author of The Gentleman’s Diet.
If Burchett or Nazario could, they’d spend hours counseling patients on how to lose weight and keep it off. Since that’s not really an option, we collected their best weight-loss advice for you.
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