Thank god for this thread because I need to offload about my experience at a slimming clinic this week! Links at the end to back up some claims I make in the post.
First things first I'm a 5 foot, 110lb female who is carrying some winter pounds. I'm super stressed with uni and work life so I booked a free consultation at a slimming clinic to explore what options were available. I mistakenly believed this was a place that cared about promoting health.
The receptionist was very skeptical of me when I walked in but sent me to see the doctor anyway. Here's where it begins!
Firstly she weighed me. In my heavy winter clothes, boots and carrying a 5lb laptop. Didn't matter anyway as she calculated my BMI (based on that weight) to be 23.5 and said that the NHS considers that the ideal BMI and it would unhealthy for me to lose any weight.
I told her I am of South Asian origin and due to tendencies towards central obesity, our BMI is overweight at 23. She said she had never heard of this South Asian BMI adjustment and asked me to prove it.
I said to her that I knew I was carrying too much fat around my midsection and that it could not be healthy for me. She repeated again, that 23.5 BMI is perfect and said that sometimes people see themselves differently to how they are and that those people may be anorexic. She said the NHS advises that 21-25 is perfect and lower than 21 is unhealthy and borderline underweight. She said 19.5 or lower is underweight.
She was absolutely adamant that it would be unhealthy to lose any weight whatsoever. I told her that a while ago, when I was over 120lb that my GP had told me it would be beneficial for me to lose weight. This was actually over a year ago but my point was to illustrate that a doctor should be kind but honest to patients for their own benefit.
At this point I left as it was clear this doctor is a total quack. Bonus: as I was leaving I stopped in the lobby to wait for my Uber and heard her bitching about me to the receptionist.
Links for the interested:
Ethnic differences in BMI and disease risk
World Health Organisation's investigation into appropriate BMI for Asia
NHS website stating 18.5-24.9 as ideal BMI range
Bonus: photos of me to illustrate that I'm not crazy, and 120lb is not the "ideal weight" for my body. Me at 121lb and 106lb