motivation to maintain a healthy weight

Currently I am a medical resident and have been using this website as a resource to track my nutritional intake mainly of cholesterol, sodium, sugar and daily vitamins. I'm not using it to lose weight since I am at a healthy BMI of 20. It will help me to be more compliant with my workout routine as well as sticking to a healthy regimen especially while on call. Anyway, I just want to stress the importance of maintaining a healthy weight. While I was on various rotations in medical school weight was a significant factor affecting people health both physically as well as emotionally. For instance while completing a cardiology rotation it was certainly apparent that weight played a significant role in determining which patient eventually ended up in the cath lab due to clogging of the arteries and would have to undergo balloon angioplasty. Also during an orthopedic rotation it was mainly overweight patients who would end up receiving cortisone injections especially in their knees to help with the pain from arthritis and to try to prevent knee replacements before the age of 65. In addition while completing a psychiatry rotation depression was rampant among overweight patients. Many times doctors especially specialists will not stress the importance of losing weight however they are there to help and provide support if you show a willingness as well as progress to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Many times we do not take much effort in stressing weight loss because we have done it numerous times in the past with no results from our patients. I just want to stress the importance of maintaining a healthy weight because it can affect many aspects of your life. This website can be very helpful in providing information about food, but I must also stress the importance of portion size. I am providing this information not to scare you but to help you realize that weight can affect many aspects of your life and knowing this it may provide you with the incentive to achieve your goal weight.

lol! in order to maintain a healthy weight, many of us have to arrive at one first!

Thanks for the information...you obviously care about the welfare of others. I wish you well in your career. I just did a full blood work-up and everything measures healthy...actually very healthy although I am still 35# overweight. My goal is to reduce gradually over the next few years so that by my next decade (50s) I will be able to say that I am also a BMI of 20...well, 20something below 25 anyway! lol

I'm just adding this as an addendum to your comments that altho your cautions are fair and well-founded, for those of us that have weight to lose, a modest reduction in weight (is it 10%?) is supposed to be adequate to stave off the big diseases...heart health/diabetes.

Good luck to us all!

Exactly what I am trying to point out. Once you have reached your goal weight use this information to give yourself the motivation to maintain it. Don't yo-yo diet and don't try to lose weight too quickly. It is apparent that you understand this concept but many others do not realize it. Losing weight too quickly or maintaining an overweight state can be very detrimental to your health. I guess when you have seen hundreds of patients dealing with these issues it can be very frustrating when you are trying to improve their health. I am a psychiatric  resident so I also understand how the emotional aspect of weight can affect a person's life. It is also very fulfilling to see a patient having concerns about their weight overcome this when they have reached their goal weight. I am just concerned about whether or not they will maintain that and I try to provide as much support as possible.