Mentioning weight loss

[DrStraggler]

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Ok, well, you know how most people lose that baby fat before middle school? Didn't exactly happen for me and long story short, I was around. 210 lbs throughout high school. That being said, I have an awesomely supportive family and group of friends so unlike some chubsters, I was not negatively affected by my weight. However, I came to the realization that as a physician, I will have to embrace and vouch for the healthy lifestyle. So, during my first year in college, I did the whole diet and exercise thing and lost 50 pounds. I'm still about 15 pounds overweight, and while I don't look chubby or anything, I'm not defined either. I'm applying to an early acceptance program that requires a personal statement and my minor is nutrition, so I could easily sneak in the whole weight loss stuff, but should I? I hear adcoms don't respond well to overweight people so I don't know, kind of confused.

 

[wolfie77]

First of all, congratulations on improving yourself.

I think that you can definitely frame this into yet another accomplishment that you have achieved in trying to make yourself a better future physician. It shows foresight: you don't want to look like a hypocrite when you tell patients to lead a healthy lifestyle.

 

[Haislip]

You can defintely use it in your personal statement and congratulations!

 

[HughMyron]

I didn't mention it in my personal statement or AMCAS application, but I have regularly worked out for 2+ years, and I am writing one (only one , fortunately) of my secondaries about overcoming a debilitating back injury and getting back to the gym, and what I learned about myself blah blah blah.

I wouldn't do it if my "greatest personal challenge" was saving African orphans from TB though. But it's not, and I don't have much to write.

I don't see how it can hurt you if you present it well.

 

[thlaxer]

Congrats with your weight loss 🙂. I was in a similar situation (lost 50+ lbs during freshman year) but I gained most of that weight during middle and high school. I originally wanted to talk about it in my application (in my exercising+misc hobbies EC description) but was advised against doing so by a mentor.

According to him, childhood obesity may be seen as a sign of maladjustment by some people (especially if there are other things in your application that might point to this same conclusion). He said it was best to avoid drawing negative attention (even if it's unfounded) to your application when it's unneeded. In my case, I wanted to use my weight loss experience to show dedication, resourcefulness, blah blah blah--however he said that this was unnecessary as these attributes can be shown by other aspects of my application. I ended up not mentioning it in my primary application and most of my secondaries..

For what it's worth though, I did choose to include this experience in one secondary (just to see what'll happen I guess 😛) and ended up being interviewed and accepted there. This topic never came up during the interview though, so I'm not sure if my mentioning it helped or hurt me. Most likely I'm guessing it had no effect. If your weight loss story is something that you really want to share, I'd include it and just word it carefully. I wouldn't include it though thinking it's going to give an advantage though. Just my n=1 experience, hope this helps 🙂.

 

[NickNaylor]

Congrats with your weight loss 🙂. I was in a similar situation (lost 50+ lbs during freshman year) but I gained most of that weight during middle and high school. I originally wanted to talk about it in my application (in my exercising+misc hobbies EC description) but was advised against doing so by a mentor.

According to him, childhood obesity may be seen as a sign of maladjustment by some people (especially if there are other things in your application that might point to this same conclusion). He said it was best to avoid drawing negative attention (even if it's unfounded) to your application when it's unneeded. In my case, I wanted to use my weight loss experience to show dedication, resourcefulness, blah blah blah--however he said that this was unnecessary as these attributes can be shown by other aspects of my application. I ended up not mentioning it in my primary application and most of my secondaries..

For what it's worth though, I did choose to include this experience in one secondary (just to see what'll happen I guess 😛) and ended up being interviewed and accepted there. This topic never came up during the interview though, so I'm not sure if my mentioning it helped or hurt me. Most likely I'm guessing it had no effect. If your weight loss story is something that you really want to share, I'd include it and just word it carefully. I wouldn't include it though thinking it's going to give an advantage though. Just my n=1 experience, hope this helps 🙂.

I can't believe someone actually recommended that you not talk about it at all. That's ridiculous.

(sent from my phone)

 

[LizzyM]

I'd go about it this way: Rather than going chronologically from baby fat onward, say that your interest in medicine, and the idea that a physician needs to model good health behaviors for the sake of personal integrity, so you set out as a college freshman to mind your diet, physical activity and stress levels. You can then say that you have experienced the challenges of adopting and maintaining good habits and that you have enjoyed the rewards which include weight loss and increased strength and energy. Finally, while you can't make it easy for patients, you do know that you can identify with their struggles and hope that you can serve as a coach and an inspiration to patients who want to improve their own health.

 

[thlaxer]

I can't believe someone actually recommended that you not talk about it at all. That's ridiculous.

(sent from my phone)

Yeah, when he talked to me about this I got pretty paranoid about the whole application process since it sounded pretty unforgiving.. I'm really glad it's not that bad though.

I don't know all of the specifics, but someone in the past wrote about their weight loss experience and that hurt their application. An older adcom member (a psychiatrist) read this story along with other pieces of information and in his/her mind believed there were reasons why that student shouldn't be accepted (maladjustment, etc.). The weight loss experience wasn't the sole piece of "evidence" used, that adcom member basically read in between the lines and tried to put 2 and 2 together. That student wasn't accepted at that meeting.

In my case, he warned me because a) I said I was overweight as a child (in EC section), b) a parent passed away earlier on (in PS and parent info section) and c) at interviews, they might see I'm shy/reserved. These three things put together might paint a negative story about me that isn't true. e.g. they see that I lost a parent early on, and might think that my shyness and obesity was the result of not adjusting well to this and they might also think that I experienced depression at some point, etc. He argued that it wasn't worth this risk, however small, since anything positive from my weight loss story could've been shown by my other activities. Even though I saw my weight loss experience as being an 'independent event,' adcoms might not do the same and try to interpret these seemingly unrelated events together.

As I said earlier, I think the OP should talk about this if he is passionate about it. It should be worded carefully though to present this in the best possible light. Since we know nothing else about the OP's application, I don't think that hurts to be cautious of how this experience may be seen in combination with the other information presented in the application. Some adcom members may still be very conservative about these sorts of things. Just my thoughts 🙂

 

[Josh7]

I'd go about it this way: Rather than going chronologically from baby fat onward, say that your interest in medicine, and the idea that a physician needs to model good health behaviors for the sake of personal integrity, so you set out as a college freshman to mind your diet, physical activity and stress levels. You can then say that you have experienced the challenges of adopting and maintaining good habits and that you have enjoyed the rewards which include weight loss and increased strength and energy. Finally, while you can't make it easy for patients, you do know that you can identify with their struggles and hope that you can serve as a coach and an inspiration to patients who want to improve their own health.

That's a great way to think about it... Thanks LizzyM you provide so much good information here 🙂

 

[slowbutsteady]

I'd go about it this way: Rather than going chronologically from baby fat onward, say that your interest in medicine, and the idea that a physician needs to model good health behaviors for the sake of personal integrity, so you set out as a college freshman to mind your diet, physical activity and stress levels. You can then say that you have experienced the challenges of adopting and maintaining good habits and that you have enjoyed the rewards which include weight loss and increased strength and energy. Finally, while you can't make it easy for patients, you do know that you can identify with their struggles and hope that you can serve as a coach and an inspiration to patients who want to improve their own health.

Say that. Cut/paste/done.

 

[NickNaylor]

In my case, he warned me because a) I said I was overweight as a child (in EC section), b) a parent passed away earlier on (in PS and parent info section) and c) at interviews, they might see I'm shy/reserved. These three things put together might paint a negative story about me that isn't true. e.g. they see that I lost a parent early on, and might think that my shyness and obesity was the result of not adjusting well to this and they might also think that I experienced depression at some point, etc. He argued that it wasn't worth this risk, however small, since anything positive from my weight loss story could've been shown by my other activities. Even though I saw my weight loss experience as being an 'independent event,' adcoms might not do the same and try to interpret these seemingly unrelated events together.

I guess that makes sense - you probably don't want to psychoanalyze yourself in your app. But still, that doesn't mean you shouldn't include it IMO.

 

[SBuck53]

Congrats! Actually, I have a similar situation.

I lost about 150 lbs during high school, went from 350 to around 200. Was a shy before, but after I lost weight much more outgoing and involved, and I was able to be a college athlete because of this tranformation. It was very much a life changing event for me, so I did chose to write about it in my personal statement. I framed it as allowing my true personality to come out and giving me confidence to pursue medicine. Added a bit about understanding other people's struggles, both physical and social.

I think it can be a really powerful subject to talk about because it is so personal. I was always advised that if it is important to you, than it is a good topic to write about. So go with your feeling on it!

 

[SBuck53]

Did anyone else write about this in secondaries? I am a little surprised to hear that other advised against writing about it. I see it as a great accomplishment, I'm curious as to why some people think adcoms would see this as a negative...

 

[NickNaylor]

Did anyone else write about this in secondaries? I am a little surprised to hear that other advised against writing about it. I see it as a great accomplishment, I'm curious as to why some people think adcoms would see this as a negative...

I think they're in the minority. I talked about weight loss in response to "challenge" types of secondary questions. I was asked about it in pretty much every interview and never heard anything negative.

 

[SBuck53]

Well that is good to hear, as I figured that would be a good talking point for interviews! Thanks for the input!