You Should Lose Weight

You Should Lose Weight

How many times have you walked into the doctor and had your height and weight taken? I am sure that this has happened almost every time the doctor must be visited, whether for a routine checkup, a vaccination, or for a wellness check. Imagine being a young girl and walking into the doctor to discuss a cold that will not go away, they check her height and weight, recording it in their chart. So far, everything is fine. It is now time to meet with the nurse; she walks through the persisting symptoms and records vitals. The doctor will be in shortly. While waiting for the doctor, excitement takes over as hope enters the room. The hope that relief will arrive soon. Contrarily, after the visit more dread an anxiousness is felt than before the visit with the doctor. Take a minute to think about why that might be.

Source: twitter.com

If you guessed that the doctor made a comment about this girl’s weight, you would be correct. Not only did she tell her that her cold would just have to run its course, she also told her that she has gained weight since her last appointment, about a year ago, and that she should work with her to figure out why she gained the weight in the first place and how to shed the weight back off. Immediately, the girl begins to feel embarrassed and upset, telling her that she knows and that she has been working on it even though subconsciously knows that she is still a healthy weight. As an outsider, I wish the doctor realized that lower weight does not equal health, really, I wish that most people realized this as does the girl being shamed.

For the majority of her life, she was an athlete. She worked hard on the field, on the track, and in the classroom, excelling in everything she did so far in life. Up until this point, she has played soccer and participated in track for as many years as she has been able to, not to mention that she is in the top of her class, giving her all to her studies as well. While all of these things are important to most, somehow everyone seems to forget them when they notice that she has a few extra pounds hanging around. She is in no way obese; she wouldn’t even consider herself to be overweight. She is just right in her eyes and her families, so why would the doctor think that it was okay to put her down over a few extra pounds? She is a growing girl, after all. She is in the middle of another growth spurt, probably one of her last, but as she continues to grow taller and exercises as she usually does, the weight will proportion itself accordingly, even if it doesn’t, who cares? Right? The doctor doesn’t seem to think so because of an arbitrary value, a body mass index calculation (BMI). Due to this, the doctor decided to tell her that she needs to watch her weight and get back on track.

Source: brittanyguerin.com

           

Health is a holistic term, though this idea is lost when it is claimed that thin is healthy and fat is unhealthy. Health has to do with many aspects of life other than just physical health. Health is different in different cultures and in individuals, leading to differences in the idea of what health is. If health is holistic, then we must include spiritual, mental, and social health alongside physical health. We must move away from our fat phobic culture. Instead of basing this girl’s health solely on her weight, we need to look into her life and capture all parts of her that add to her health. We must celebrate the differences in body size, not shame it. Moving towards a fat friendly, holistic health loving society will squash the idea that there was ever an obesity epidemic and prove that health is more than just a number. In doing this, girls like the one in this blog will be able to grow up to love their body, not be shamed into changing it.