Losing Weight as an EC?

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LizzyM said:
I have seen people list this as "other" in "experiences". Given than 67% of Americans are overweight or obese, there is a need for physicians who understand the challenges facing people who are carrying excess weight.
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By the same token, listing this as an extracurricular is a little silly.

Part of an application? Absolutely.
 
I wouldn't list this as an EC, but it would be a great topic for a 'Tell us about a challenge you have faced and what you did to overcome it' secondary essay or interview question.

Congratulations on all of your hard work in losing all of that weight. 🙂
 
Losing weight is not an EC but rather a result of a EC. Some how working it in as an experience might be plausible. Personally I lost about 40 lbs for the interview season but never brought it up on interview day. My thinking was the only people that would "get it" would be those who have lost weight themselves. One applicant informed the group during the personal introduction he lost 50 pounds and it was kind of awkward for the rest of us so I could see it being equally awkward in an interview.
 
I included my drastic weight loss as my most difficult experience in my secondaries because it is a difficulty I will face for the rest of my life. Yeah. I lost 100 pounds. However, not only do I still have about 30 more to go, but I also have to maintain that loss for a nice long while.

While this is something I will not mind discussing in my interviews with an interviewer, it is not something I would generally bring up unless somehow someone in my interview group knew me from high school or my first 2 and a half years of undergrad. The likelihood of that happening is hopefully slim though.
 
I would definitely think that this is something to slide into app but definitely not as an ec (pretty funny if you did). I'm on that track right now and as I lose more and more, it's come to my attention how important being fit and healthy it is to be doing so. Ever so often, I see someone who is eating themselves alive and it frightens me how we can all encourage this indulgence.
 
Petrichor1 said:
I would definitely think that this is something to slide into app but definitely not as an ec (pretty funny if you did). I'm on that track right now and as I lose more and more, it's come to my attention how important being fit and healthy it is to be doing so. Ever so often, I see someone who is eating themselves alive and it frightens me how we can all encourage this indulgence.
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Fat acceptance is an extremely important movement and I would warn you that it's unprofessional to undermine it.
 
What if you documented your weight loss progress every week in videos and posted them on the internet (e.g. Youtube) answering questions about your diet and exercise plan (within your scope of knowledge and research of course) from viewers and even received company sponsorship? I would think that would be a awesome extracurricular activity. Correct me if I'm wrong.
 
Akewataru said:
What if you documented your weight loss progress every week in videos and posted them on the internet (e.g. Youtube) answering questions about your diet and exercise plan (within your scope of knowledge and research of course) from viewers and even received company sponsorship? I would think that would be a awesome extracurricular activity. Correct me if I'm wrong.
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Hmmm... that could come across as the desire to be the next Dr. Oz or something and that might have a few adcoms shaking their heads.
 
LizzyM said:
Hmmm... that could come across as the desire to be the next Dr. Oz or something and that might have a few adcoms shaking their heads.
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Not sure whether to take this as positive or a negative. How Dr. Oz is viewed depends on who you ask. Some people think he's a godsend, others think he's a menace.

In any case, what I did is a weekly video journal documenting my progress doing this 16 week plan I've always wanted to try. Believe it or not weight loss is NOT the primary goal, but rather a convenient side effect. At first, I only recorded my progress for my own posterity, but I figured if I benefited from this plan, why not share it with others? Plus, show that even if you do work full-time and go to school full-time (currently in a SMP) you don't have to sacrifice your health as many students do.
 
seeing the title of this thread next to your profile picture made me lol
 
congratulations on your achievement but I would leave this out
 
werunthis said:
I've lost 100 lbs from freshman to junior year, which obviously sucked up a lot of time. Would that be a respectable thing to list?
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It's a good essay or interview answer to a challenge you have overcome, how its affected you, and your outlook/perspective you have gained from that
 
wasteofspace323 said:
Fat acceptance is an extremely important movement and I would warn you that it's unprofessional to undermine it.
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look...I'm not going to be a doctor that endorses extreme overweight or obesity...no matter what movement is taking place. I myself have suffered from not taking care of my health and quite frankly you shouldn't worry that I'm going to act rudely with a person who is not in the healthy zone...a doctor's job is to help not shame. I am just stating that a lot of people that are overweight think it is impossible to lose weight so they don't mind about controlling their eating habit. Being someone who might have may produce an excellent doctor that can show results rather than just never bring it up. In my opinion, my doctor never mentioned this until some health problems peaked up, even if weight was subtly over. Now all I do is walk/run/stand, and I have newer purposes in my life which is great even though every day is exhaustive but if I don't take care of it no one will. Oh and by your view then, why do we continue shaming anorexia?
 
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Akewataru said:
Not sure whether to take this as positive or a negative. How Dr. Oz is viewed depends on who you ask. Some people think he's a godsend, others think he's a menace.
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Every physician I know would fall into the "Oz is a menace camp."
 
I lost 50 pounds from the start of sophomore year to the start of junior year. I started playing a sport religiously and wanted to shed all that weight to play better. I never brought up the weight loss on amcas but I did mention the sport. During a few of my interviews so far I briefly touched on the weight loss aspect of playing the sport since my interviewer brought up the sport, but I never elaborated on the weight loss in detail.

So far I am batting 1000 on interviews so I guess it was alright to do.
 
werunthis said:
I appreciate the feedback! Maybe I'll list the marathon I ran, and mention my weight loss within that experience? It might take a bit of mental gymnastics though haha
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Marathons are impressive and all, but they still aren't an EC in my mind. When I read your application or interview you the fact that you ran a marathon isn't going to improve your chances compared to someone who didn't run a marathon.

Congrats on losing weight and getting healthy, but don't think that makes you more competitive or interesting as a person/applicant. You were able to lose 100 pounds because at some point in your life you let yourself be 100+lb overweight. Correcting your mistake is awesome, but again, not better than a person who didn't lose 100lbs in 3 years. Here's an analogy to make the concept more tangible. Someone who slacks off for a year and has an upward trending GPA from 1.5 to 4.0 is not more impressive than someone who works hard for all 4 years and has a 3.8.

One of my biggest pet peeves when reading applications is people overselling relatively meaningless things (being healthy is great, but weight loss says nothing to me about how successful you'll be in med school and beyond).
 
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seminoma said:
Marathons are impressive and all, but they still aren't an EC in my mind. When I read your application or interview you the fact that you ran a marathon isn't going to improve your chances compared to someone who didn't run a marathon.

Congrats on losing weight and getting healthy, but don't think that makes you more competitive or interesting as a person/applicant. You were able to lose 100 pounds because at some point in your life you let yourself be 100+lb overweight. Correcting your mistake is awesome, but again, not better than a person who didn't lose 100lbs in 3 years. Here's an analogy to make the concept more tangible. Someone who slacks off for a year and has an upward trending GPA from 1.5 to 4.0 is not more impressive than someone who works hard for all 4 years and has a 3.8.

One of my biggest pet peeves when reading applications is people overselling relatively meaningless things (being healthy is great, but weight loss says nothing to me about how successful you'll be in med school and beyond).
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Clearly you have never lost a substantial amount of weight. In my mind, it's one of the most difficult things to do, right up there with quitting smoking. Humans are creatures of habit. There are few things more difficult than breaking the chains of ingrained and reinforced habits. To be able to do it, and maintain it, is something I think is impressive. Much more difficult than "the person who didn't lose 100 pounds in 3 years."

I agree that it shouldn't be the focus of an app. However, it's certainly an interesting story maybe for a secondary if the OP can explain how they were changed by it. That's all secondaries really are--an opportunity to show a school how your perspective adds to the diversity of their student body.

A 1.5 GPA from someone who has to overcome something really negative that trends up to a 4.0 is more impressive and intriguing to me personally than the rich kid who has access to all of the benefits of wealth and maintains the consistent 3.8 but lacks any other perspective.
 
Congrats on losing weight and getting healthy, but don't think that makes you more competitive or interesting as a person/applicant. You were able to lose 100 pounds because at some point in your life you let yourself be 100+lb overweight. Correcting your mistake is awesome, but again, not better than a person who didn't lose 100lbs in 3 years. Here's an analogy to make the concept more tangible. Someone who slacks off for a year and has an upward trending GPA from 1.5 to 4.0 is not more impressive than someone who works hard for all 4 years and has a 3.8. .
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Are you going to tell me that an obese 14 year old chose to be 100 lbs overweight because he slacked off? Not everybody is lucky enough to grow up in families that prioritized health and healthy eating. Learning about healthy habits though, in the face of overwhelming cultural trend towards obesity, is something that should be applauded (in my mind).

One of my biggest pet peeves when reading applications is people overselling relatively meaningless things (being healthy is great, but weight loss says nothing to me about how successful you'll be in med school and beyond).
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Things that weight loss requires: Self-Awareness, discipline, willingness to change, persistence and motivation. Not saying that it's all there is to being a competitive applicant or that one should be privileged over someone who never had the same difficulties.
 
seminoma said:
You were able to lose 100 pounds because at some point in your life you let yourself be 100+lb overweight. Correcting your mistake is awesome, but again, not better than a person who didn't lose 100lbs in 3 years. Here's an analogy to make the concept more tangible. Someone who slacks off for a year and has an upward trending GPA from 1.5 to 4.0 is not more impressive than someone who works hard for all 4 years and has a 3.8.
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Very poor analogy
 
I quit smoking, didn't include it on AMCAS. I feel this is more of a "bring it up during an interview if relevant" thing, no ADCOM is going to be like "Wait - this candidate lost weight?? Interview them IMMEDIATELY!"
 
J Senpai said:
Many medical professionals would disagree, but ok.
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Dude please stop fat shaming.

Snakes said:
A 1.5 GPA from someone who has to overcome something really negative that trends up to a 4.0 is more impressive and intriguing to me personally than the rich kid who has access to all of the benefits of wealth and maintains the consistent 3.8 but lacks any other perspective.
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Rich kids are people too. I'm sorry you find it ok to discriminate based on someone's SES.

whatever5 said:
I quit smoking, didn't include it on AMCAS. I feel this is more of a "bring it up during an interview if relevant" thing, no ADCOM is going to be like "Wait - this candidate lost weight?? Interview them IMMEDIATELY!"
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You never know. It might strike a cord. I hear some adcoms can be quite hefty.
 
seminoma said:
Marathons are impressive and all, but they still aren't an EC in my mind. When I read your application or interview you the fact that you ran a marathon isn't going to improve your chances compared to someone who didn't run a marathon.

Congrats on losing weight and getting healthy, but don't think that makes you more competitive or interesting as a person/applicant. You were able to lose 100 pounds because at some point in your life you let yourself be 100+lb overweight. Correcting your mistake is awesome, but again, not better than a person who didn't lose 100lbs in 3 years. Here's an analogy to make the concept more tangible. Someone who slacks off for a year and has an upward trending GPA from 1.5 to 4.0 is not more impressive than someone who works hard for all 4 years and has a 3.8.

One of my biggest pet peeves when reading applications is people overselling relatively meaningless things (being healthy is great, but weight loss says nothing to me about how successful you'll be in med school and beyond).
Click to expand...
Ouch man, a bit insensitive...
 
seminoma said:
Marathons are impressive and all, but they still aren't an EC in my mind. When I read your application or interview you the fact that you ran a marathon isn't going to improve your chances compared to someone who didn't run a marathon.

Congrats on losing weight and getting healthy, but don't think that makes you more competitive or interesting as a person/applicant. You were able to lose 100 pounds because at some point in your life you let yourself be 100+lb overweight. Correcting your mistake is awesome, but again, not better than a person who didn't lose 100lbs in 3 years. Here's an analogy to make the concept more tangible. Someone who slacks off for a year and has an upward trending GPA from 1.5 to 4.0 is not more impressive than someone who works hard for all 4 years and has a 3.8.

One of my biggest pet peeves when reading applications is people overselling relatively meaningless things (being healthy is great, but weight loss says nothing to me about how successful you'll be in med school and beyond).
Click to expand...
The healthy at every size and fat acceptance movement is in part a reaction to this kind of ignorance. Most children don't "let themselves" become overweight. Many don't have a conception of what being unhealthy really even means and don't have the resources or role models to encourage a healthy lifestyle and there are hundreds of other factors that could influence someone's weight. Looking at obesity as a "mistake" or failure on the part of the patient is completely unhelpful and discounts the complex influence of social determinants on health. An applicant who has lost a lot of weight might have a better conception on how social factors play into health and the fact that these factors should be addressed by medicine as well.

Losing weight is also more than breaking habits- your entire physiology fights against it (things like leptin receptor insensitivity preventing people from feeling full, decreased BMR, fat cell hyperplasia that makes it easier to gain back weight, etc), so it takes a lot of strength.
 
I've seen people mention this in interviews. Sometimes interviewers are impressed, other times it falls flat. Wouldn't list it anywhere on a CV and have to say that if you write about it in an essay it won't be something that a PD won't have seen before. As a personal accomplishment that's great, and you'll be thanking yourself at the first code you have to run up the stairs to get to during residency. As a professional accomplishment it just won't get that much mileage though, and has been done/tried before.
 
wasteofspace323 said:
Fat acceptance is an extremely important movement and I would warn you that it's unprofessional to undermine it.
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As pay for performance begins to make its way through the profession I do not think it would be "unprofessional" to fire overweight/obese patients who refuse to lose weight. Why should the physician sacrifice appointment time and income for patients who refuse to participate in their own health?

Snakes said:
Clearly you have never lost a substantial amount of weight. In my mind, it's one of the most difficult things to do, right up there with quitting smoking. Humans are creatures of habit. There are few things more difficult than breaking the chains of ingrained and reinforced habits. To be able to do it, and maintain it, is something I think is impressive. Much more difficult than "the person who didn't lose 100 pounds in 3 years."

I agree that it shouldn't be the focus of an app. However, it's certainly an interesting story maybe for a secondary if the OP can explain how they were changed by it. That's all secondaries really are--an opportunity to show a school how your perspective adds to the diversity of their student body.

A 1.5 GPA from someone who has to overcome something really negative that trends up to a 4.0 is more impressive and intriguing to me personally than the rich kid who has access to all of the benefits of wealth and maintains the consistent 3.8 but lacks any other perspective.
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Again, I didn't say it wasn't impressive. I said, or meant to imply, that weight loss is not an EC to list on a med school application.

I didn't say anything about the SES of the 3.8 and unless I know a lot about an applicant's background I don't use their parents' financial status in my evaluation. Sure it seems reasonable to assume a kid from a wealthy family had access to all the best things, tutors, books, etc. In that case maybe a 3.8 isn't as impressive. But it's also reasonable to think that a kid form a wealthy family had everything given to them, never had to work hard for anything, never developed a work ethic, etc. So in that light a 3.8 is quite an accomplishment. You can imagine a similar two-sided coin for a kid from a lower SES family. At the end of the day even the rich kid with all the tools in the world needs to show up and do the work on his/her own. Same is true for the not rich kid. I say this as someone coming from a family who lives paycheck to paycheck; not destitute, but not wealthy either.





Yoseph101 said:
Are you going to tell me that an obese 14 year old chose to be 100 lbs overweight because he slacked off? Not everybody is lucky enough to grow up in families that prioritized health and healthy eating. Learning about healthy habits though, in the face of overwhelming cultural trend towards obesity, is something that should be applauded (in my mind).


Things that weight loss requires: Self-Awareness, discipline, willingness to change, persistence and motivation. Not saying that it's all there is to being a competitive applicant or that one should be privileged over someone who never had the same difficulties.
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He said he lost 100lb from freshman year to junior year. So unless he gained 100lbs over the summer before college he was +100ish pounds as a junior/senior in high school. I agree that many families don't prioritize health, but OP obviously had some inkling since he started losing weight freshman year of college. 17/18 year old high school students who are on their way to college have a decent head on their shoulders and can be held responsible for their own body.

Fastrada said:
The healthy at every size and fat acceptance movement is in part a reaction to this kind of ignorance. Most children don't "let themselves" become overweight. Many don't have a conception of what being unhealthy really even means and don't have the resources or role models to encourage a healthy lifestyle and there are hundreds of other factors that could influence someone's weight. Looking at obesity as a "mistake" or failure on the part of the patient is completely unhelpful and discounts the complex influence of social determinants on health. An applicant who has lost a lot of weight might have a better conception on how social factors play into health and the fact that these factors should be addressed by medicine as well.

Losing weight is also more than breaking habits- your entire physiology fights against it (things like leptin receptor insensitivity preventing people from feeling full, decreased BMR, fat cell hyperplasia that makes it easier to gain back weight, etc), so it takes a lot of strength.
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I have no idea what movement you're talking about, but being overweight increases your risk for countless diseases, notably CAD, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, etc. Your point about someone's conception on social factors relating to health is well taken. However, someone who has maintained a healthy weight through exercise and appropriate dietary choices might have the same conceptions, possibly even better or for a longer period since they did not get to a point of needing to lose a lot of weight.

Idk what they're teaching now, but I was taught that adipose hypertrophies and near the end of puberty there is no significant increase in number of adipose cells (i.e. no hyperplasia). Anyway, yeah losing weight (and keeping it off) is probably difficult for the reasons (and others) you listed and while it demonstrates the ability to commit to something, it doesn't tell me anything significant about the type of student you are.

werunthis said:
Ouch man, a bit insensitive...
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It's objective.
 
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StudyLater said:
Rich kids are people too. I'm sorry you find it ok to discriminate based on someone's SES.
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I'm more interested in the totality of someone's life experiences than anyone's particular SES. However, I do think that the kinds of experiences that give a person depth generally cannot be bought.
 
Snakes said:
give a person depth generally cannot be bought.
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I believe a better way of phrasing this is that perception cannot be bought while experiences can. You can put a kid with money at a really devastated location and assume they understand the world or seen it wholly but in reality their perception may become even more downtrodden about the locals there or rather their superficial understanding has a more indignant tone and as such their perception of reality lacks baring ground. I have seen this happen and it amused me at how firm and cozy they felt with their knowledge. No matter, SES is nothing that is of value in my opinion. You could grow at a rich or poor house with no values at the end of the day.
 
seminoma said:
I have no idea what movement you're talking about, but being overweight increases your risk for countless diseases, notably CAD, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, etc. Your point about someone's conception on social factors relating to health is well taken. However, someone who has maintained a healthy weight through exercise and appropriate dietary choices might have the same conceptions, possibly even better or for a longer period since they did not get to a point of needing to lose a lot of weight.

Idk what they're teaching now, but I was taught that adipose hypertrophies and near the end of puberty there is no significant increase in number of adipose cells (i.e. no hyperplasia). Anyway, yeah losing weight (and keeping it off) is probably difficult for the reasons (and others) you listed and while it demonstrates the ability to commit to something, it doesn't tell me anything significant about the type of student you are.
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Healthy at every size is a movement that incorrectly believes that there is no correlation between obesity and poor health and it promotes a distrust of doctors who believe otherwise. I think this movement largely stems from the fact that our generation had a high rate of obesity in children who grew up and were then told that they were obese because they chose to be and failed to take care of their health. There is a discordance in their mind because they have never known anything but obesity and it's something that started before they even had a concept of choosing a healthy lifestyle, so why would it be a failure on their part? Since ignorant people kept pushing this idea that it is a failure, unsurprisingly young obese people react defensively by rejecting all health advice.

I think you confound adult obesity with childhood obesity. They are two ginormously different things- psychologically, developmentally, sociologically. Unless a child who was always thin and active said, "hey, there are these social determinants in my life that are encouraging me to gain weight, but I'm going to fight against them to stay healthy," that child doesn't have a concept of the social determinants in their life. That child has positive social determinants encouraging them to be healthy and they aren't consciously aware of them. Even you keep asserting that you always chose to be healthy, rather than acknowleding the positive influences in your life that encouraged you to be that way. If you grew up with a different set of circumstances, your health could have been different. Losing weight requires you to self-reflect on the health determinants in your life and then address them.

And even if you disagree that losing weight shows characteristics that are good for a student to have, not everything on the med school application needs to be about making you a better student. Losing a large amount of weight shapes your perceptions and helps form the person you are today and the med school application is trying to understand who the applicant is. I'm a musician. That didn't make me a better student, but it's a part of who I am. Applicants don't base their lives around what could enhance their med school application. Someone who talks about their struggle with weight and how it shaped them is sharing a personal part of themselves, so to turn around and say that you don't care because you don't feel it makes them a better student just makes no sense to me.

Edit: And if a student said something like losing weight taught them time management skills because they needed to learn to schedule and plan everything in their life in order to prevent regain, how can you say, "Oh no, you didn't actually learn that because I said so?"
 
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I put "resistance training" as an EC and wrote about it, but in my case, it played a somewhat integral role in pointing me towards pursuing a career in medicine. I started lifting to improve my health and body composition-----> became a fitness trainer -----> Managed a small private studio ----> Became interested in a possible career in a healthcare profession -----> went back to school in my late 20s as a premed. If it's an important part of your life and perhaps played a pivotal role in your development personally and professionally, then I don't think it would hurt to discuss it on your app unless you had to make room for it by removing something else from your activities section that is more relevant, but that is just my opinion.

Congratulations on your weight loss. As a person whose weight has fluctuated much over the years, I understand the kind of feat that really is.
 
I wrote about my weight loss in my personal statement because it was one of my reasons to go into medicine. At one of my interviews we talked about it quite a bit

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I also lost a significant amount of weight (~90 pounds), but I put boxing as an EC, because it is something I am passionate about. I incorporated the weight loss into that and discussed the motivation for the weight loss due to poor health in my family. I also have discussed it in secondaries about a challenge that I have faced. It was in my secondary for Pitt and I have an interview there, so it must not be a bad thing to bring up.
 
werunthis said:
I'm not a troll you schmuck. I went from 260 lb to 158 lbs.
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In a few of my interviews I got asked what my proudest accomplishment was, and I said it was because I lost the weight that I was able to do something really cool with my team. You could definitely say that you're most proud of your marathon and the huge health overhaul it took to get there. You've made huge lifestyle changes. Be proud!
 
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It couldn't hurt. Put it in if you have an extra activities spot
 
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