Love Your Doc, Lose Weight?

It's not a surprise that our primary care doctors can directly impact our weight loss goals. But did you know that recent studies found that people who have a good relationship with their docs are more likely to shed pounds or maintain a healthy weight?

"Simply telling patients, 'You need to lose weight,' often doesn't work," said Elizabeth Lombardo, physical therapist and clinician in Wexford, Penn. and author of "A Happy You: Your Ultimate Prescription for Happiness." It's important to understand the underlying messages that your doc is sending to you.

How Your Doc Tells You to Lose Weight
Lombardo asks open-ended questions that encourage her patients to talk and think about weight loss as she tries to Socratically steer them into seeing how weight loss would play a huge role in what they want. "In other words ... 'what's in it for them' so they can buy into the idea." Dealing with issues ranging from sleeping better at night to getting rid of chronic pain, Lombardo has helped many patients lose weight. In the case of chronic pain, she had one patient walk 10 minutes per day, three times per week, and progress until the patient lost more than 50 pounds and is now pain free.

Natasha Withers, osteopathic physician at One Medical Group in New York City, said that the most successful approach she's found is to let patients identify the diet problem. "I use a technique called motivational interviewing," she said. It's "more effective than directly telling some that they are overweight or need to lose weight, as the patients usually are already well aware of this issue."

Virginia emergency physician at INOVA Fairfax Hospital, Suzie Miller, tries to form a fast but solid bond with patients. When she brings up the discussion of obesity, it often immediately turns to diet; however, she also tries to talk exercise. Miller's been told by one patient: "No doctor has ever talked to me so openly about my weight. Thank you for addressing my whole person and not just my heart."

Real People, Real Results
After going for a physical this past November, 52-year-old Paul Vann found out his blood pressure and weight were both high. These findings sounded the alert, and Vann's doctor recommended the retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel take a full battery of tests. Vann was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes and needed to lose weight. He has a good relationship with his doc and therefore heeded his advice. "I want and need to be here for my wife, 7-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son," he said. Since enrolling in the Washington, D.C., Move Weight Management Program in January, Vann has lost 31 pounds and is on track to lose 100 pounds by the end of the year.

Nancy Sayles Kaneshiro from Woodland Hills, Calif., said she's always been overweight but otherwise healthy -- until all of a sudden, she wasn't. Kaneshiro was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes and knew weight loss was essential. The turning point was when her usually jovial doctor got very quiet as he was her reviewing lab tests. "He said, 'I'm very worried about you. If your numbers get much worse, you could be headed for kidney failure, and I won't be able to do anything about it,'" she says. "That got my attention." She has "a wonderful relationship" with her doctor that has been a work-in-progress over the past 25 years. After several efforts to lose weight to no avail, she and her doctor ultimately decided on bariatric surgery. Eighteen months post-surgery, Kaneshiro dropped more than 50 pounds and counting, "but the good news is that all my test results are in the normal range. I am in the best health of my life, and I now count both doctors among my personal friends."

Tell us: Do you have a good relationship with your doc, and has a doc ever inspired you to jump-start your weight loss plan?