Too Fat To Be A Nurse?

[Newprospnp]

I just got into nursing school (MSN direct entry program) as a career change after 10 years practicing law. To be put it mildly, my general constitution plus years of legal practice have left me absurdly out of shape (as in, 130ish pounds overweight). I'm noticing that healthcare people tend not to be overweight and besides, I'd like to be a "good example" to patients since I'm looking to do primary care ruse practitioner work (at the very least, I'd like to not get the whole "how big a deal is my being overweight really if you, my healthcare provider, are way overweight" question). It probably also has to do with my being a bit older than other students and a guy. I figure I can safely lose about 50 pounds (I.e., 2 pounds a week) before school starts, which still leaves me well and obviously overweight. Also I'm a guy, so already feeling a little self-conscious about what patients think of male nurses/nursing students. Does anyone have any thoughts or experiences they can share?

[Alex_RN, BSN]

You are fine. No one will judge you. Worry less about your overall weight and work on your stamina. My typical day is 12,000 steps in 12 hours. Track you macro nutrients on something like MyFitnessPal. Lower carb is good. 2lbs a week is a lot, although weight will come off quickly at first. Don't obsess about the number on the scale.

[Nursynursenurse, ADN, RN]

ZyzzFan said:

These are just excuses; it literally takes zero effort to be lean and eat in a normal caloric maintenance. 

I'm not sure if you are trolling or if this is real. Just because you can eat and feel satisfied with a maintenance calories doesn't mean that someone else can. If the above was true then NOBODY would be overweight or obese.

Dieting means restricting calories and your body perceives that as starving. This increases hunger and food fantasies and you eventually binge on calorically dense foods. Dieting fails 100% of the time and can even guarantee that person stays obese. Dieting is actually a cause of binge eating disorder. Biology will always win. Evolution has not caught up to the abundance of food we have. You may have to put zero effort into eating maintenance but many people will absolutely have to starve themselves and feel hungry, deprived, and miserable.

So your "eat healthy and exercise" advice is useless and arrogant. You think fat people are all just dumb and don't know how to identify a vegetable? Also, fullness and satisfaction are two different things.

You don't have to hate on me too, I am a recovering anorexic so I know self starvation quite well. And because you are incapable of listening to the obese people, maybe you'll listen to me. I frequently eat "healthy" salads that are so large they can probably serve 12 people. I can feel full after eating stereotypically healthy foods but not be satisfied.  If I'm craving donuts or cookies then no amount of healthy food will rid me of my cravings. I can easily eat 5000 calories in one sitting. I can probably eat you for dinner. Don't tell me or anyone else we lack self control just because you feel full after eating a few bites of food. Please look up the Minnesota starvation experiment to see what dieting really does to people. 

[ZyzzFan]

Nursynursenurse said:

I'm not sure if you are trolling or if this is real. Just because you can eat and feel satisfied with a maintenance calories doesn't mean that someone else can. If the above was true then NOBODY would be overweight or obese.

Dieting means restricting calories and your body perceives that as starving. This increases hunger and food fantasies and you eventually binge on calorically dense foods. Dieting fails 100% of the time and can even guarantee that person stays obese. Dieting is actually a cause of binge eating disorder. Biology will always win. Evolution has not caught up to the abundance of food we have. You may have to put zero effort into eating maintenance but many people will absolutely have to starve themselves and feel hungry, deprived, and miserable.

So your "eat healthy and exercise" advice is useless and arrogant. You think fat people are all just dumb and don't know how to identify a vegetable? Also, fullness and satisfaction are two different things.

You don't have to hate on me too, I am a recovering anorexic so I know self starvation quite well. And because you are incapable of listening to the obese people, maybe you'll listen to me. I frequently eat "healthy" salads that are so large they can probably serve 12 people. I can feel full after eating stereotypically healthy foods but not be satisfied.  If I'm craving donuts or cookies then no amount of healthy food will rid me of my cravings. I can easily eat 5000 calories in one sitting. I can probably eat you for dinner. Don't tell me or anyone else we lack self control just because you feel full after eating a few bites of food. Please look up the Minnesota starvation experiment to see what dieting really does to people. 

This sounds like a combination of blatant fit shaming and just more excuses.  Becoming overweight means that the person went to the effort to eat an excess amount of calories over an extended period of time in order to gain extra body mass.  Eating those calories takes effort, sitting around even doing nothing while not eating calories takes zero effort.  I don't understand how that's a foreign concept.

Nobody is "starving" themselves to eat in a maintenance calories.  The definition of starvation is "suffering or death caused by hunger".   This just sounds like toxic fitphobic fat propaganda and you can post all the studies you want likely run by overweight people themselves trying to justify their lifestyle choice of being overweight but it doesn't change basic science.

In the immortal words of the great philosopher Zyzz "get ripped or die mirin'".

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

Nursynursenurse said:

I'm not sure if you are trolling or if this is real. Just because you can eat and feel satisfied with a maintenance calories doesn't mean that someone else can. If the above was true then NOBODY would be overweight or obese. 

Dieting means restricting calories and your body perceives that as starving. This increases hunger and food fantasies and you eventually binge on calorically dense foods. Dieting fails 100% of the time and can even guarantee that person stays obese. Dieting is actually a cause of binge eating disorder. Biology will always win. Evolution has not caught up to the abundance of food we have. You may have to put zero effort into eating maintenance but many people will absolutely have to starve themselves and feel hungry, deprived, and miserable.

So your "eat healthy and exercise" advice is useless and arrogant. You think fat people are all just dumb and don't know how to identify a vegetable? Also, fullness and satisfaction are two different things.

You don't have to hate on me too, I am a recovering anorexic so I know self starvation quite well. And because you are incapable of listening to the obese people, maybe you'll listen to me. I frequently eat "healthy" salads that are so large they can probably serve 12 people. I can feel full after eating stereotypically healthy foods but not be satisfied.  If I'm craving donuts or cookies then no amount of healthy food will rid me of my cravings. I can easily eat 5000 calories in one sitting. I can probably eat you for dinner. Don't tell me or anyone else we lack self control just because you feel full after eating a few bites of food. Please look up the Minnesota starvation experiment to see what dieting really does to people. 

There's a lot to unpack here.  Sounds like you are not the typical person, eating 5,000 calories and not feeling satisfied.  Having cravings that won't go away.

For most of us eating enough for 12 people would fill us up.  For most of us if we ignore cravings over time they will go away.  It's giving into cravings that keep them around.  Many people have conquered cravings to things like sugar and cheese.

"Eat healthy and exercise" is not arrogant and useless advice.  It's the best advice we got.  It means different things to different people, but I don't think it's fair to shoot that advice down because you happen to be an outlier.

I do understand that everyone is different and one size doesn't fit all, that we all don't burn calories at the same rate, etc. and that it's not all that simple for many people and that not every can or even need to get to 8% body fat as long as they are eating healthy and exercising.

[londonflo]

ZyzzFan said:

Becoming overweight means that the person went to the effort to eat an excess amount of calories over an extended period of time in order to gain extra body mass. 

So it is all intention/effort  to gain weight??? So if I eat a lettuce salad, cheeseburger, egg salad sandwich, pizza. (And I am thin) ..the purpose is to not satisfy my hunger... the intention is to loose weight.