I lost 12 pounds last week.
Except of course I didn’t lose 12 pounds last week. What I did do is step on one medical professional’s highly-calibrated super special space-age polymer Star Trek scale and then, seven days later, do the exact same thing at another medical professional’s office.
One, or possibly both of those scales were off.
Now, I don’t keep a scale in the house and I’ve never put much thought one way or another into stepping on a doctor’s scale and in a way I kind of feel bad about that.
See, if there’s one thing a Southern girl –especially an Episcopalian Southern girl– loves it’s a ritual. And gin. Mostly gin. But ritual is great too, so I feel bad about missing out on what seems to be a common weigh-in ritual of the Removal of The Shoes.
It seems so…I don’t know…dumb. Well, maybe not dumb, but silly. If you’re going to take off your shoes, to get an “authentic baseline reading” (btdubs: not fooling anyone), why not take off all your clothes? Or why not weigh your shoes and subtract? Or make sure you only get weighed at the same time in your cycle after you’ve had the same meals and evacuated the same quantity of waste?
I’ll tell you why, because it’s a silly vain thing women do to get the lowest number on the scale, and while God knows I fully plan on someday becoming the patron saint of silly and vain things, you’re at a doctor’s office. Butch it up, keep your shoes on unless otherwise instructed and let these people get on with their jobs.
Weight isn’t static and physicians know this so while YOU might want to do all manner of tricks to get that number as low as you can, all it’s really doing is making the nurses roll their eyes. These fine men and women handle steaming cups of pee as part of their daily lives…do you really want to make their jobs worse?
That being said, I’ll cop to weighing in at my nutritionist’s a month ago and –after seeing that I’d gained seven pounds in three weeks– (which I’m pretty sure I hadn’t, I just suspect her scale went out of calibration between visits) having Very Angry Thoughts directed at my big wedge espadrilles.
So what do you do? Do you keep your shoes on? Take them off? I know some women refuse to be weighed at all (this I think is silly, but whatever. I’m sure non-weighers have their reasons) Medical professionals, weigh in too!
At my height, ~5 lbs clicks my BMI up or down one notch. The time I didn’t remove my shoes, winter coat, hat and purse at the doctor’s was the time I got the Diet Lecture – while I was nursing.
In a way, it was awesome, because I totally stood up for myself and was proud of that. I Told Her Things about my eating and exercise habits for a few minutes and she backed down. But I could do without that shot of anxiety and adrenaline that comes with it.
Comment by TeleriB — May 18, 2010 @ 9:27 am
May I be wishy-washy and say that it depends upon the shoes?
I generally wear Danskos, which are heavy! If I am wearing a heavy shoe, that is easily taken off, like those are, I will remove them. But if I am wearing lace up boots, or a lighter shoe I won’t bother.
I can happily announce my favorite type of weight change- I have lost a pants size due to taking 30 minute brisk walks at lunch with a best friend. Haven’t lost a pound, but I feel great!
Comment by Yosa — May 18, 2010 @ 9:28 am
I always take off my shoes. It’s just habit. If I’m wearing heels, it’s easier for me to balance on the small metal plate that is the doctor scale. When I weight at home (daily), I’m in my undies and barefoot.
Comment by Emily — May 18, 2010 @ 10:00 am
I don’t remove my shoes, but I *always* put my purse down before stepping on the scales. And I remove my winter coats.
When I weigh at home, I’m either naked or wearing only pajamas.
Comment by Jenna — May 18, 2010 @ 10:05 am
I take mine off, but mostly because I’m clumsy and am convinced that I’ll fall over on the wobbly scale..plate…thing.
I do put my purse down for vanity’s sake, because I routinely carry around 10 lbs. of junk and a book.
Comment by LL — May 18, 2010 @ 10:13 am
I think it’s sillier to insist that I get on a scale when I’m at the doctor for a cold, or a pulled muscle, or any other thing completely irrelevant to the size of my ass. It’s none of their freakin business how much I weigh at that particular moment in time. So, no, I usually do not concede to the weigh-in.
Comment by Jezebella — May 18, 2010 @ 10:21 am
I wear heavy steel toed boots at work during the day and often find that the entire dr office experience is easier without shoes. Additionally, I take my coat/sweater/purse off before weighing as well. I do not think it is an effort to get the smallest weight as much as it is to get the most accurate weight. Since I am usually there for weight-related issues, it helps to see the general trends. I would gladly strip down each time I am weighed but they frown upon that.
Also, it’s more than likely your weight fluctuated by 7lbs not her scale. As you said: water, cycles, salt, clothes, etc. I work at an industrial chemical manufacturer and our scales (ie: badly abused scales) do not do that. Scales do rarely just go “out of calibration” like that.
Maybe not everyone has the same reasons as me. I weigh myself at home at the same time of day on the same day each month as well. I do not think that it is silly or dumb.
Comment by Rebecca V — May 18, 2010 @ 10:51 am
I am a non-weigher as well. I always know how about much I weigh, and I will happily give the doctor a number if he/she requests it directly. And if it is relevant, like a dosage issue (this has come up in my checkered health history exactly once), then sure, I’ll get on the scale (with shoes on).
The refusal is just an attention thing, I freely admit. I am always pleasant about it, and it just sends a little message of “Pay attention to this one, she may be trouble.” And anything you can politely do at a doctor’s office to stand out a bit and make them really look at you is a good thing, I have found. (I also insist on being addressed as Ms. Lastname, by doctor and back-office staff alike.)
I see a lot of doctors, alas, but it’s been years since a health care provider has said a rude or judgmental word about my weight, and it very rarely comes up at all. A bit of polite eccentricity in this regard seems to go a long way.
Comment by Mifty — May 18, 2010 @ 11:03 am
It’s never occurred to me that I could refuse or that I could take my shoes off. Good heavens.
Comment by Lisa — May 18, 2010 @ 11:26 am
When I’m on track for the diet and exercise thing, I weigh myself each morning, when I first wake-up, but after I’ve been to the washroom. I wear nothing but underwear to do it.
It’s less about getting the lowest number on the scale and more about getting the most consistent number on the scale. If you’re doing a weighted average / every day measurement thing, it doesn’t work if those measurements aren’t happening under similar conditions, and that’s the one point in my day I can rely on.
Comment by Jacquilynne — May 18, 2010 @ 11:34 am
Always take my shoes off at the Dr.’s office because they usually take height at the same time. I sure would like to add a few inches to my height more than I want to weigh a few pounds less, but alas, that is cheating. At this point, I’m just hoping to not shrink in height.
There are a number of reasons docs check weight even when you’re there of something seemingly irrelevant. Weight gain or loss can be an indication of water retention or dehydration. Sometimes rapid weight changes can indicate a more serious illness. And there’s the dosage thing if she needs to prescribe meds.
And it’s usually the nurse who has to ask you to get on the scale. Why give her a hard time when she already has to deal with grumpy sick people all day, not to mention all those bodily fluids?
There’s also some queuing theory at play here. If you leave people waiting too long, they get cranky, so give them something to do. Make them move around, get on a scale, have their blood pressure taken. Then they think something’s happening and they don’t perceive it as part of the wait.
Comment by merry — May 18, 2010 @ 11:39 am
I know I shouldn’t admit this but I have always been a shoe remover – and yes – it is because I want to see a smaller number. I know it is silly and the number really doesn’t matter but it is still there in black and white staring at me. Currently, I am 30 weeks pregnant with a license to put on weight but the number still freaks me out. I would get naked if I thought they wouldn’t haul me off to the looney bin.
That said, I feel really good about the healthy weight I am putting on. I just don’t like the number. Yep, I am crazy.
Comment by Catherine — May 18, 2010 @ 11:55 am
I’ll weigh in (see what I did there? ha!) TWO ways: personally, when I weigh myself at home, it’s barefoot, no clothes, first thing in the morning and after I pee. I weigh myself frequently – some times daily – and minor fluctuations don’t freak me out, but I want to know how much *I* weigh, not my jammies. My regular doctor accepts my home weight.
I’m a nurse, so I’ll jump in professionally as well. It’s totally acceptable to ask your health professional what they need your weight for. Depending on the answer, I would say it’s fine to just tell them, if you know it (with the caveat that lying about your weight is for your driver’s license, not your doctor). If you don’t know it, get on the scale. Your doctor needs to know your weight for dosages, and because unintentional gain or loss can be a symptom of many diseases, some of them very serious (read: cancer), and a risk factor for other diseases that your doctor is justified in screening you for (ie, doing his or her job).
I work at a hospital, with cancer patients. They get weighed every time they come in, because they are at risk for serious weight loss and malnutrition, and because we need their weight to determine how much chemotherapy to give them. When I weigh a patient I want an accurate weight, dammit. I want them to take off their shoes and heavy outerwear, and to not be carrying books, purses, computers, briefcases, children, bottles of water, etc, and if they have a catheter with a full bag it is appropriate to have the nurse hold that so as not to include a liter or two of urine in their weight.
If you are in doubt, say “should I take my shoes off first?”
Side note: your weight (or for that matter how you look naked) has no aesthetic effect whatsoever on your nurse. I’ve seen numbers that would make me cry if it was on my own scale, and my only interest is whether or not that person has gained or lost since last time. Unless you came in one one of those little trucks they use at the airport, I guarantee you your nurse has seen worse, so get over it.
Comment by Rebekka — May 18, 2010 @ 2:34 pm
When I was seventeen, ish and getting birth control at my local Planned Parenthood, I came across a nurse that sat me down and instilled THE FEAR OF GOD into me in terms of weight. I mean, it was seriously traumatic: she threw around phrases like “morbidly obese” (and mind you, at this point I was about 190 and 5’10–big, but not gigantic). Lady brought me to tears and still didn’t stop with the lecture. Made me seriously consider if it was even worth getting birth control, and THAT is something you want a teenager to be thinking about.
So yes, ever since I was a little psycho about it; shoes and coat off, and scheduling appointments earlyish in the morning so I will be able to forgo even drinking water until post-weigh in.
But I am happy to say that I am at least getting better about it. I think a lot of people are more worried about that extra pound or two in terms of what the person weighing them thinks; much less so for themselves. And really, that woman was despicable.
Comment by Lindsay — May 18, 2010 @ 2:35 pm
@ merry… There are many ways you can let somebody know you don’t want to be weighed that don’t involve giving them a hard time. A simple, “No, I don’t want to do that today; my weight hasn’t changed since last time (or I know what it is, and it’s not fluctuating, thanks so much.” should suffice, and if they get insistent, you do what you do with everybody who refuses to get on the clue bus: You repeat yourself, exactly, using the same polite language.
I’ve known a number of folks with compulsive behavior who don’t want to get a scale as it triggers problems for them. You should have the ability to make choices about what happens to you at the doctor’s office. It’s not about pleasing the nurses or making their lives easier. You’re not crapping on somebody just because you don’t give them what they want.
Comment by Lisa — May 18, 2010 @ 6:55 pm
A former coworker of mine told me a story of one day hearing an alarmed cry of “MOM!” coming from the bathroom. She found her (always very thin) teenage daughter standing on the scale in a panic over the number she saw there.
Without saying a word, she calmly took her daughter’s purse, winter coat, boots, large heavy keyring, and the armful of library books she was holding.
Me, I’ve been known to take off jewelry before stepping on the scale. And I thought the early-morning, not-even-water thing was something everyone did.
Comment by BSAG — May 18, 2010 @ 7:09 pm
I always take off my shoes. Oftentimes, I will also forgo breakfast until after my appointment, too (primarily because I am a vain little thing).
I have never refused to be weighed, though, mostly because it never occured to me that I could. I have closed my eyes and told the nurse not to say it out loud, though.
Comment by ChristianeF — May 18, 2010 @ 7:12 pm
In order to make this decision, I’d have to have a doctor. In order to have a doctor, I’d have to have health insurance.
Last time I did go to a doctor who weighed me, I believe it was shoes off, by their policy (they were also getting a height, since I’d never been there before). The extra pound or two wouldn’t have made any difference to me, but MY GAWD this woman seemed to think that I was about to keel over and die right there in the office. No matter what I said about my habits, my health history, my general state of well-being, she didn’t believe any of it.
At least, not until the battery of tests she ordered to prove that I was a ticking time bomb came back, and to her consternation, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM was well within normal/healthy range. Still got the Scarlet O, though.
Comment by zuzu — May 18, 2010 @ 7:27 pm
I weigh myself at the doctor’s, but only go about once a year, so that’s ok. Don’t have a scale at home – haven’t in decades. When I did weight watchers in my early 20’s, I weighed myself once a week there, not at home, and it worked well for me. I decided that I did not want to get stressed out about hourly ups and downs. When my daughter was doing a school play one year, one of the costume moms (yes, that’s what we call them and no, I don’t sew, not more than a pillow, anyway, and they’ve never requested one for a costume so I’m off the hook. I do cook excellent desserts, however, and pitch in at the bake sale), asked her weight and height in an email. In her defense, she was trying to figure out approximately how much fabric to buy, and girls in middle school can be all different heights. I knew my daughter’s height, because we have a growth chart on the wall, but honestly had no idea about her weight. The costume mom (who was a nurse in real life) commended me for not having a scale with a teenage girl in the house. It has only once or twice been a problem, for my younger daughter when figuring out a medicine dose. For the most part, when my 14 year old daughter was freaking out because she wasn’t as thin as the girls on America’s next top model, I was delighted. I could point out how beautiful she was and what a great sense of style she had and never, never, jump into the weight number discussion. And that was good. because now that she’s 16, she basically thinks about how she looks in an outfit and not the numbers.
as for me, at the doctors I take off shoes and outerwear and put down my purse or backpack. I live in a northern climate and take off probably 10 pounds of stuff in the winter. and yes, my winter boots are significantly heavier than the sandals I wore today! the nurse is used to it. She has no problem waiting.
Comment by larkspur — May 18, 2010 @ 7:46 pm
actually, I just remembered – my pediatrician’s office actually asks everyone to take their shoes off in the entry way all winter long – about 6 months ;-). otherwise they were having entirely too much salt and mud throughout the exam rooms. So everyone has their shoes off! my seamstress does the same as soon as wedding dress season starts (who wants to drag a train through mud and gravel?).
Comment by larkspur — May 18, 2010 @ 7:57 pm
I don’t do the weight thing at the doctor’s office. I don’t have a scale at home. I was once lectured about gaining weight by my prediatrician when I went from being a non-hipped, not yet menstruating 13 year old to a reasonably slender, getting-a-figure 15 year old. (I started going to a grown up doctor). I go by my clothes fitting (within reason).
I lift weights which gives you more muscle and that can increase body weight. (It also gives you strength and bone density). I don’t consider my weight to be any one’s business. Tables of height vs. proper weight don’t look at muscularity or bone structure or build. Did also I mention I have white coat hypertension and am a big baby about going to the doctor’s?
Comment by Debs — May 18, 2010 @ 8:48 pm
I take off my shoes, which I guess is a holdover for me from the days when I was a wee thing at the pediatrician getting my height taken as well. I just thought of it as “the thing you do” rather than in terms of trying to knock a few pounds off the final total. At home I weigh myself VERY occasionally on our WiiFit, which has options for estimating the poundage of the clothes you are wearing.
Comment by KESW — May 18, 2010 @ 9:24 pm
As I do in all cases (where I can get away with it), I take the easy road: I wear my lightest flip flops, and don’t bother to take them off unless the nurse also is measuring height.
At home, occasionally my adorable little wii fit asks me if I want to weigh in and sometimes I agree, sometimes I don’t. Mostly, I’m curious to see if how I feel in my clothes translated to actual weight lost or gained.
Comment by lizb — May 18, 2010 @ 10:20 pm
I weigh myself every morning, while naked, just before I get in the shower. It’s the consistency thing someone else mentioned above — no clothes while weighing means an accurate weight every time. Or, at least, it means I don’t have to guess whether any fluctuations are due to what I’m wearing.
I take my shoes off when being weighed at the doctor’s office only if I’m wearing particularly clunky or heavy shoes. I have never refused to be weighed. When I’m at the doctor’s office it is usually for an infusion and the nurse needs to know how much medication to put in my IV.
Comment by Cat — May 18, 2010 @ 10:46 pm
I take off shoes if I’m told to, but usually just don’t care enough. I’ll put down a heavy bag. Luckily I don’t have a chronic disease that necessitates accurate weights.
As a nurse (in the hospital setting) I want accurate weights on my patients in case they suddenly wind up with a DVT and I need an accurate dose of mg/kg lovenox (common). Or they have to transfer to the critical side for an MI, PE or embolic stroke, I want some accurate weights on the books so the tele or ICU nurse can have a comparison for their weight and accurately apply the heparin drip. The odd ESRD Pt with 3x/week dialysis is worth weighing consistently so the nephrologist can order the right dialysis stuff. Mostly I use it to monitor heart failure and nutrition, but I don’t do those with weight exclusively. Usually the patients don’t care what their weights are because…I don’t tell them unless they ask, and using the bed scales makes it less intrusive. The rare Pt who is overweight who asks for nutrition or weight loss advice is often recovering from some injury or chronic issue that has precluded exercise. In turn this can lead to poor self-image and the wish to make a change. However, being sick in the hospital is NOT the time to be trying to limit intake. This point comes up surprisingly often ‘oh, I’ve lost 10 pounds since I’ve been here, hooray!’ ‘uh…not hooray. Eat more protein, and the dietician will come see you.’ Or when I go to give an abdominal injection, ‘I just need a pinch of fat to jab’ ‘oh I’ve got plenty of that, too much!’ ‘you kinda need that to live, especially now that you can’t keep anything down…’
As far as pee handling goes, I generally don’t carry it around with me except today I totally did and it was totally +. Also the I’ve seen it all card: I really don’t care for me, but I care for you because you are embarrassed. That is why things like weight or funky scars or whatever matter to me. I’m not here to judge you or make diet control recommendations unless you ask me to. If I do see a total lack of knowledge and openness to the idea I will bring it up as a matter of health management and prevention, but I am not your PCP and it is not my focus.
Comment by g-lo — May 19, 2010 @ 12:10 am
I not only take off my shoes, I take off my earrings.
The whole weigh-in ritual raises my BP five points…
Comment by Constance — May 19, 2010 @ 12:14 am
What you wear when you weigh in doesn’t matter as long as you’re consistent, so that you’re trying to get as close to your “real” weight as possible. Ideally, weighing in nude on the same scale every time would be as “true” as possible.
I am another who works with patients (I do nutritional counseling in conjunction with using an alternative medicine–often a good food plan eliminates the need for scary prescription drugs my patients no longer want to use, and it does so in a way their doctors can understand). I treat most people via house call. I check out their own home scale to see if it works, then I get them to use that scale each time, around the same time of day for each weigh-in: I also ask they be consistent regarding clothing each time. Footwear does add weight, so does heavy outerwear (ever hurt your back and wear a full length wool coat? Those extra 5 pounds are felt, let me tell you). I have never met a medical professional who rolls his or her eyes if you remove your shoes to be weighed. It’s expected.
It’s also expected that no two scales are alike, and no one scale is 100% accurate, even if the scale in your doc’s office is a state of the art, titanium glazed digital machine made by NASA. It’s important you use the one scale as the reference point, all the time, if you’re monitoring weight changes for any reason. I also think a far more accurate measure of weight loss, if that’s the goal, involves using a tape measure: around not just the waist and hips, but also around the head, neck, chest, upper arms, wrists, thighs, knees, calves, and ankles. I even measure shoe size because weight loss does affect that. Again: best to measure a bare arm, a bare neck, a bare chest, and a bare foot. This gives the most accurate measure.
But, this kind of weigh in isn’t the type that’s done in hospital in order to calculate dosage–that has a very different intention and the need for accuracy is much more important there.
As for the condescending “diet lecture”, I would like to remind people who feel they have a right to dispense this opinion to you while you’re in your doctor’s office (or nutritionist’s office) that their job duties consist primarily of recording your weight and handling steaming cups of pee: and that berating you is simply not required for that task list’s completion. Tell him or her to stop right there. Refuse listen to it if it’s judgmental, especially if you’ve asked for diet guidelines specifically– “lecturing” is not the same thing as providing the information you’ve requested.
Comment by ChaChaheels — May 19, 2010 @ 6:30 am
I have closed my eyes and told the nurse not to say it out loud, though.
I thought I was the only one who did this.
Comment by The gold digger — May 19, 2010 @ 8:56 am
On refusing to be weighed:
I haven’t, but I’m becoming tempted to (cases of sudden gain or loss, or weight calibrated medicines excepted). I’m not comfortable with the move towards using BMI as a diagnostic health measure. NC state employees will be charged more for health care if their BMI is too high; Whole Foods has decided that skinny employees deserve a better discount. In both cases, the rationale is that fat people don’t take care of their health and deserve to be punished for it. That fails on at least two levels.
I suppose it’s silly to think that withholding the weight/height data would make a difference – they must have a policy for dealing with unknown BMIs, or else make it a precondition for receiving benefits. But I don’t like the idea of just submitting to it, either.
Comment by TeleriB — May 19, 2010 @ 9:24 am
I wish had any of the nurses on this page instead of the ones I get, who all treat me like an idiot and waste of societal resources as soon as they take one look at me.
Comment by Lisa — May 19, 2010 @ 11:59 am
I refuse to be weighed simply because I dont like most authority figures. I do back done once a year so the medicine measurements will be accurate.
Comment by Peaches — May 19, 2010 @ 4:10 pm
I take my shoes off it it’s not too complicated– I probably wouldn’t bother with boot for example. And i take off my coat and bag.
I hate being weighed, but with the cancer treatment those numbers are more important than usual. Is it shallow of me that I was pleased this morning at the doctor’s to see I’d lost 11 pounds? I know the scale may be out of wack, but I’ll take it!
Comment by barbara — May 19, 2010 @ 5:17 pm
I don’t weigh. I’m a nurse, and I know that specific weights are really only useful for a few very particular things: dosing of some medications, monitoring of congestive heart failure & kidney function (you can tell very specifically how much fluid someone is retaining by weighing daily), etc. If a physician plugs in my weight & sees my BMI, I stand a decent chance of having my concerns brushed off in the light of the dirty word: “obese”. Given that my vitals are all extremely good, my blood/lab work is great, and I am capable of the extremely physical job of hospital floor nurse, which entails standing, walking, and sometimes running for 12 hours a night with maybe 15-30 minutes to sit down if I’m lucky, I don’t think my weight is a problem. Quite frankly, if I’m at the doctor’s office for a UTI or a spider bite (as I was recently), my weight is irrelevant and may only be a hindrance in communication. That said, I see 2 doctors who are great about that. Dr. B (female, around my age) and Dr. K (male, maybe my parents’ age) have never once used weight to blow off a concern, even when that concern was back pain.
Back to the “shoes on or off” issue: it IS an issue when you’re getting a weight for one of those aforementioned reasons. For congestive heart failure, what I’m looking for is a gain of 3 kg in a day. Some shoes COULD account for that. When you’re weighing yourself for CHF, we ask that you use the same scale, same clothes, and same time of day every day. For medication dosing (let’s use the anticoagulant heparin), I need to know what YOUR BODY weighs, and in the hospital we do this by weighing you in naught but your delightfully fashionable gown. This tells me at how many units of heparin per hour I should start your drip. I am not heparinizing your shoes, no matter how fabulous. :D
Comment by HillaryGayle — May 19, 2010 @ 5:32 pm
I’m in recovery for an eating disorder. I was shocked to be told by a therapist that I *could* refuse to be weighed. Knowing the number just causes me anxiety and gives me a reason to beat myself up. No number = one less reason to chastise myself. I don’t have any serious health problems, so I know if I’ve gained or lost weight by how my clothes fit and how I feel. When I’ve had surgery or every couple of years at the doc’s office I let them weigh me without telling me the number. (Heavy shoes come off, the rest of the clothes stay on.) It’s just easier on my psyche not to have that number running around in my head.
Comment by Orora — May 20, 2010 @ 11:05 am
I take off my shoes, my watch, my earrings, and whatever else I can discard without indecently exposing myself….and then I turn around and ask the nurse not to tell me what I weigh. I will make appointments first thing in the morning before I’ve eaten or had too much water. Depending on the time of year, I will try to wear the same outfit I had on the time before. Yes, I’m nuts. I HATE being weighed at the doctor’s office, mainly because I know the “you need to lose weight” lecture is coming.
My doctor seems to have forgotten that body composition is more important than weight. She knows I exercise and lift weights A LOT, and even commented that I’ve lost inches recently, but she’s still tied to that number on the scale, and feels the need to call me obese nearly every time I go in. (BTW, I’m 5’6″ and a size 10 and you’d be shocked at how much I “weigh”)
Because I know what’s coming once I step off the scale my blood pressure skyrockets every time. Its a serious bummer.
Comment by JayKay — May 23, 2010 @ 11:06 pm