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[Ms. Toad]

104. My point is that far too many people who are obese

go to doctors for health conditions that have nothing to do with obesity, and rather attend to the symptoms and treat whatever conditions they may indicate, they are told to lose weight. Because the doctor does not pay attention to their symptoms, their conditions go untreated, ultimately costing considerably more both economically and in terms of quality of life - and at times even life.

Similarly because of the extreme medical prejudice, people who have health conditions that are often correlated with obesity - but who are not obese are also often denied appropriate care because the first (and often only) recommendation for a condition presumed to be caused by being overweight is "lose weight" - even the disease in that individual is clearly not caused by being overweight.

Each person should be individually assessed. Yo-yo dieting is harmful, as are many of the diets individuals desperate to lose weight follow. The vast majority of people who lose weight gain it back, and more - with repeated weight loss, comes repeated weight gain. For individuals who are obese and healthy, the damage done by repeatedly losing and regaining weight is far more costly than maintaining their weight. A far better plan is for each person, in consultation with their physician, to evaluate whether they are healthy at their current weight - and if so to encourage practices for optimum health and fitness at that weight. If not, an evaluation should be done about the relative health risks of remaining at the current weight v. the consequences associated with weight cycling.

Obesity differs from smoking in many ways, but one important way is that with smoking, even if you only stop repeatedly for a short periods of times, you are still in better shape than if you continue smoking. In contrast, repeatedly losing and gaining weight can be more harmful than remaining overweight.