My doctor wants me to eat low fat, not low carb

[ab1ht]

Here's what I would do:

For now, say "Yes, doctor". Then go on induction.

Go back in two months. Say, "How does everything look?"

When she says you've done great, tell her, "GOTCHA!"

-Paul

[flourchild]

Like my mother says - A doctor is an employee. If you're smart you'll listen to a good employee's advice and opinions, but you may not take everything they say to heart. This is especially true when you know more about something (like your body) then the employee has the perspective to know. Just don't give the lab coat more power than it deserves.

I wouldn't change doctors if I otherwise liked this one, either. Instead I'd be looking forward to the day I could hand back her list of recommended foods with a smug laugh.

[lene]

I agree with the posts saying that, if possible, you should change doctors. But one other thing to bear in mind is that you can work with a doc you like in other ways but whose notions on diet are outdated -- you just have to say firmly, "I disagree with you, and I'm making an educated choice as to what foods I consider beneficial for my health." Some doctors are flummoxed by the thought that their employers (the patients) dare to disagree with them, and to make choices contrary to their advice. But it's your body, and you have the right *and* the responsibility to educate yourself and do what you think is best for your own health. Good luck to you!

[Houston Heather]

My psychiatrist lost weight on a low-fat low-calorie diet, but he's been nothing but supportive to me.

I did it like this: I started Atkins 2 months before my next appointment. Due to other reasons, he ordered a blood test about 6 weeks in. The results were "completely normal". When I went in again, I was 20 pounds lighter with perfect lab work.

He didn't care what I was doing as long as I kept it up.

[brandy998]

Hi all, I just want to chime in and say from my personal experience that Weight Watcher's does work if you work the plan the way that it is supposed to be worked. Especially the CORE plan which emphasizes lots of fresh veg, lean meats and small servings of healthy oils. I lost 30lbs on it in a very reasonable amount of time. HOWEVER that way of eating is not satisfying to me. I love eating fats & cooking with fats and I just could never love cooking low fat. Food is one of my great pleasures and to just subjugate that pleasure for the rest of my life was just not something I could see myself doing. LC allows me to indulge my gastronomic tastes a lot better than LF. If there are no metabolic reasons to do either plan, then you need to choose the one that you like the best, and the only way to do that is to try both for a period of time and see which one fits you. You need to be on the plan that fits you best when your willpower is low. Good luck! Oh, and piss on that silly doctor, too.

[ItsNot2L8]

Originally Posted by lene

you just have to say firmly, "I disagree with you, and I'm making an educated choice as to what foods I consider beneficial for my health."

As to hiding what you're doing from your doctor, I think one reason why low carb gets such a bad rap is there are a lot of people who follow a healthy low carb WOE but don't want to admit publicly that's what they're doing... so doctors and friends and family go by whatever misinformation they've picked up from poorly researched magazine articles and the "friend of a friend" whose friend got bubonic plague and ingrown toenails from eating nothing but bacon and brie.

I don't always want to debate nutrition either, but the only way to dispel misinformation is by sharing real information. After all, I first found out about Dr. Atkins and low carb from a friend, and I'm grateful to her for that.

[CrzyCatLady]

Do you want a copy of my blood work to show your doc? I'm sure we could locate a few others here with improved blood work results after going low carb! Maybe she just hasn't had enough/any positive results with LC dieters. Mine improved quite a bit in just 5 mths. Good luck with your decision.

[belleadonna]

[COLOR="DarkGreen"]Yup, my bloodwork improved too and so did my husbands. In fact, he even took him off of one of his blood pressure pills. He was taking 2 different kinds of BP pills. Now he only has to take one. [/COLOR]

[Mayberryfan]

Does your doctor not realize that our ancestors ate virtually no starch, no sugar diets? If they had gotten health problems from eating this way, NONE of us would be here now. Lawrd! It's really so simple. But, 40-50 years of horrible nutritional education, horrendous advice on proper diet from the government, etc., has led to a group of medical professionals who don't have the FIRST CLUE about a really healthy diet.

I ate low-fat, high carb for years and I"m talking whole wheat bread, brown rice "complex carbs" and ended up 100 lbs. overweight. Even complex carbs make me ravenously hungry. Now, most of the time, it's a simple matter to control portion size because my appetite is probably 1/3 of what it used to be. I no longer feel like I'm "deprived" because I'm not having to constantly tell myself NOT to eat.

ITA with the people who said get a new doctor. Find one that's supportive of LC and be 100% honest with them about what you're eating, supplements, everything. Good luck!

[SugarFreeSheila]

If you tell your doctor you're just doing Atkins, you might get a questioning look.

If you are following Atkins as written and describe your actual menus & the foods you eschew to your doctor, you'll practically get applause from him/her.

I do both, mentioning "Atkins" & follow it up with a fast description of how I eat - and every doctor I have from my dentist, gynecologist, especially my dermatologist and endocrinologist, general practitioner who takes my blood for LDL/HDL/triglycerides, not to mention the staff at the Dallas Cooper Clinic where I do my hydrostatic underwater body fat measurement have always seemed genuinely accepting - even encouraging.

After all, once a medical professional is versed on what the program actually entails, Atkins is an indisputably healthful way to eat. Throw that in with what it does for us in terms of lipids, body fat reduction, increased energy, and a sense of well-being, and you've bought yourself a nod of approval.

[Not quite so Big D]

I had a similar experience with my 350+ lb dr, excpet it was after I had lost 50 lbs. Despite my best physical ever, and weighing what I weighed as an eighth grader, my dr said the Atkins diet was going to kill me.

The next year when I went for my physical, my dr had lost 100+ pounds and he was extolling the greatness of a low carb diet.

[KevetS]

Originally Posted by SugarFreeSheila

If you tell your doctor you're just doing I do both, mentioning "Atkins" & follow it up with a fast description of how I eat - and every doctor I have from my dentist, gynecologist, especially my dermatologist and endocrinologist, general practitioner who takes my blood for LDL/HDL/triglycerides, not to mention the staff at the Dallas Cooper Clinic where I do my hydrostatic underwater body fat measurement have always seemed genuinely accepting - even encouraging.

LOL; honey, you could be the poster child for LC.

I have a friend who has a pretty blond sister. A bunch of us cracked up when she said, "I don't know why people complain about car mechanics, they are so nice!"

[belleadonna]

Originally Posted by Mayberryfan

Does your doctor not realize that our ancestors ate virtually no starch, no sugar diets?

[COLOR="DarkSlateBlue"]What?? I could have sworn that they found fossils of Mounds wrappers and potato chip bags??

[/COLOR]

[KajunDC]

Originally Posted by Heidi Bowen

I went to the doctor today.
My doctor asked about my weight loss. She asked what I was doing. I said low carb.
My doctor said that low carb isn't healthy. The only way to lose fat is to eat low fat.
She printed out a list of foods I should be eating to lose weight. She said I'd start losing weight in about 6 to 8 weeks.
Pasta is okay. I asked if whole wheat pasta was better. She said it didn't matter because pasta is low in fat. Low fat lunch meat. No red meat. No butter. No cheese. Only low fat salad dressing. Cereal with skim milk for breakfast. Only egg whites, no yolk.
She also wanted me to join Weight Watchers online and to stay away from doing low carb.

Does low fat really work better than low carb?

I tried to explain to the doctor that since I've started low carb I felt so much better. I also told her when I stopped eating sugar that first day it felt like I was withdrawing from the sugar. She said that doesn't happen.

I'm just confused about what to do.

Understand that medical doctors get little to no training in school in proper nutrition. Stanford University only offers nutrition as an elective and Harvard only requires pediatric nutrition - and it is a self-taught course. (I know the students are just busting their tails to do that work on theri own with the load of other work they have )

But basically MD's know absolutely nothing about proper nutrition. So they are not the best to give advice in this area.

And your MD obviously has no knowledge in this area as she is giving you absolutely horrible advice. No... low fat does not work better than low carb.

[sugarless4life]

Originally Posted by belleadonna

[COLOR="DarkSlateBlue"]What?? I could have sworn that they found fossils of Mounds wrappers and potato chip bags??

[/COLOR]

Betty