How to Escape That
Fat and Sad Feeling

I get it. I’ve had a lot of patients who feel the same way, too.

Let’s take the case of one of my patients who described herself as “fat and sad.”

Growing up, she had always been overweight. But it didn’t bother her that much because, despite her weight, she was healthy, able, and active.

Now, at 32, she’s just feeling depressed.

Why is it that despite all her efforts to get to her ideal weight, the scale just won’t budge?

It’s not like she lacked comprehension about how weight loss works.

Less calories in, more calories out. Eat less, exercise more.

But if obesity were simply a math problem, we wouldn’t have an epidemic.

The thing is, being overweight has a lot of psychology behind it.

She’s not fat because she eats a lot.

She’s fat because she has underlying mental issues that lead her to make poor choices about her diet.

Numerous studies show that obesity is associated with depression, eating disorders, anxiety, and even substance abuse.

It’s not simply a cause-and-effect thing.

You’re fat, so you get depressed. To cope with depression, you overeat and thus, put on even more weight.

It’s a crippling cycle that’s hard to escape.

So, just imagine the blow that a plastic surgeon inflicts on the self-esteem of a patient who’s “too fat” to get overweight plastic surgery.

I get that high BMI plastic surgery is risky for obese patients, but that’s not always the case.

Unfortunately, not all plastic surgeons have the courtesy to dig deeper to see if a person is unhealthy with serious health conditions or just plain overweight.

Because those two are NOT the same.

Contrary to popular belief, you can get body contouring procedures even if you’re way past your ideal body weight — as long as you don’t have any serious illnesses.

As plastic surgeons, we actually have the chance to end this vicious cycle of obesity and mental health disorders.

So why aren’t most of us doing it?

I can only wonder.