Medical CME Conferences

Many primary care clinicians believe that it is there responsibility to discuss issues of weight and obesity with patients. When the time comes however, it can be uncomfortable for both the physician and patient and many physicians feel ill equipped to deal with issue related to weight loss. In addition, many physicians don’t believe that counseling patients on weight loss actually works. Although there are many resources for discussing obesity and weight loss with patients, here are some tips that may put both physicians and their patients on the road to success.

• Do your home work and take a refresher course on nutrition exercise. The University of North Carolina offers a free on-line course called Nutrition in Medicine that covers numerous topics targeted towards the practicing physician. Or, take a CME course that offers a broader update on  obesity.
• Don’t focus on spending more time discussing weight with your patients; rather, improve the quality of discussion by utilizing some of the motivational interviewing techniques which may include treating the patient like an expert, using reflection, and avoiding confrontation and judgment.
• Patients may not recognize that they are overweight or obese so ask questions to find out how the patient views them self such as “What do you think about your weight?”
• Patient motivation is key – find out a goal that the patient is passionate about and ask questions like, “How might you better be able to participate in/improve ______ if you lose 30 or 50 lbs?”
• Avoid terms that patients consider undesirable, such as “fatness,” “excess weight,” or “large size,” and stick with terms considered  more desirable, like “weight,” “BMI,” and “unhealthy body weight.”
• For patients that don’t recognize that they have a problem, focus on sharing general information about health, diet, exercise and weight.
• Have patients start with simple things like weighing themselves every day, cut back on sweetened beverages, walk or participate in some other physical activity 3 days per week for 15-20 minutes per day, park their car further from their destination, eat in more days per week, etc. Never overestimate their knowledge of simple weight loss techniques.
• Even if the patient does not appear overweight, always ask them about the types of food they are eating and how much they are exercising – focus on the patient’s behaviors and not just the weight.
• Remember that change comes slowly and encouraging your patients on a consistent basis will eventually pay off. Remember that even broaching the topic of weight can make your patients up to twice as likely to attempt to lose weight.

Receive more education and practice these techniques with your next few overwieght patients and you’ll be putting your patients on the road to success in no time!