Are doctors suppose to be brutally honest?

My friend told me her doctor got in her face and was very blunt. She said she was in the borderline of diabetes and she is fat. She said she needs to lose weight immediately. My friend got offended and said, "It's just curves! I have meat on my bones." Then the doctor fired back at her. I can tell she is strict. I told her that the doctor made a good point and doctors should never sugarcoat it otherwise you'll end up dead. She had that look. I'm not going to sugarcoat either. Now she lost 20 pounds now! She was 250 and now she is 230 now. Yay!!! She is 5'0. I wish my doctors took me seriously. I'm 220lbs and I'm 6ft. Didn't show any concern at all!

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Magnolia · 31-35, F

The evidence shows actually that making somebody feel ashamed of their weight is most likely to result in them gaining more weight. There was a study done at the University College London and you can read about it here:

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-09/ucl-sd091014.php

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AcidBurn

@Magnolia "Because this was a population survey and not an experimental study, it cannot conclusively confirm that the positive association observed between discrimination and weight gain is causal."

The survey was only concerned with discrimination, which is not the same as shaming. Some people eat when they're depressed. This discrimination might be part of that depression, but how can they say that the depression and weight gain are from "1) you are treated with less respect or courtesy;
2) you receive poorer service than other people in restaurants and stores;
3) people act as if they think you are not clever;
4) you are threatened or harassed;
5) you receive poorer service or treatment than other people from doctors or hospitals."?

The whole survey was basically pointless. To think that money could have been used in a productive study.

Magnolia · 31-35, F

@AcidBurn In sociological studies there are very rarely (if ever) 100% conclusive results because people are complex. The results do seem to indicate however that this conclusion is valid.

AcidBurn

@Magnolia There is a huge difference between a study and a survey. The article explicitly said its results cant be assumed to mean anything.

Magnolia · 31-35, F

@AcidBurn "In a study of 2,944 UK adults over four years..." Come on now, that's three lines in! The survey was part of a study.

Did you literally ignore the whole article aside from the part which looks like it aligns with the ideas you already hold, when taken out of context? I think you should look into this more.

AcidBurn

@Magnolia Unfortunately I did waste my time reading the whole thing. [quote] The data are from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, a study of adults aged 50 or older. [/quote] They used data from a study to populate their survey. And only people 50 and older?! What about those under 50? How often do people over 50 develope things like anorexia or bulimia vs people in their teens? Those are very serious disorders caused in part by fat shaming. They do a lot more damage than [quote] people who reported weight discrimination gained 0.95kg [/quote]

Not only is it completely irrelevant to this post, but there's no science behind it. They asked people if they thought they were discriminated against in any of five specific ways because of their weight. Maybe "people act as if they think you are not clever" because you really aren't clever. But, if you decide to blame it on being fat, that's how their survey records it.

Again: [quote] Because this was a population survey and not an experimental study, it cannot conclusively confirm that the positive association observed between discrimination and weight gain is causal. [/quote]