On being a fat medical student, at the start of our metabolism module
Weโre starting our โmetabolismโ module at med school this week, and Iโm dreading it with every fibre of my being. You see, I am going to be a doctor, and I am fat.
Iโm not the type of fat you feel after youโve had a big lunch, and your usually flat belly is protesting against the waistband of your jeans. Iโm the real kind. My BMI hovers a couple of points below โmorbidly obeseโ.
I worry a lot about what people will think of me as a fat doctor. For the smartarses among you, of course Iโve tried to be non-fat, it goes without saying. The thing is though, bodies donโt really like weighing less all of a sudden and are pretty good at reversing things in the long run. Mostly my body settles back to the same size 18 shape eventually.
I am always aware of my fatness, but perhaps more so here at medical school. We are training to work with bodies, and mine is a type of body we warn our patients not to have. It is the first thing described in every list of โmodifiable risk factorsโ. A colleague suggests โjust donโt let yourself get too fatโ as we talk about preventing a certain type of cancer. A final exam question asks us to list four poor health outcomes associated with obesity. I sit through lectures with slides that have sniggering titles like โhow BIG is the problem?โ
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