At Ukmedix News we are all for plain speaking, however doctors must be sensitive

An American government committee of weight loss professionals reckons that you must call a spade a spade when it comes to obesity. Very often doctors do not use the word obese with both adults and children because they think that they might get offended, however these new recommendations say that it is better to be blunt and direct with the weight of people rather than trying to soften the blow.

The group of doctors that was setup to look at the obesity problem by the American Medical Association said that the practice of using the expressions “at risk for overweight” to define people who are clinically overweight with a BMI of 25+, or the other expression “overweight” to define people who are obese with a BMI of 30+ is not helping matters at all. They insisted that it was essential that people were told that they were clinically overweight or obese and that they should do something about it because of the large amounts of health risks associated with carrying extra body fat.

The recommendations of this group of doctors are unlikely to be endorsed by the American Medical Association but it may encourage doctors to be stronger and more direct with their patients. At present in America almost one child in five is clinically of obese and one in three is overweight.

At Ukmedix News we are all for plain speaking when talking to people with weight problems however doctors must also be sensitive and explain very clearly how people can lose weight and exactly how dangerous it is to be overweight and obese. Sometimes overweight people just need a little bit of help and with a good doctor who understands the issues involved, (many of which are psychological) they can really get on the weight loss wagon.