The Four Bad Eating Habits We Learned in Med School

As an emergency doctor, weight loss discussions weren’t a core part of my patient interactions. Yet, it inevitably came up.

When diagnosing a patient with knee arthritis, they’d ask, “What can I do to feel better?” My response often included, “Strengthening your leg muscles and losing weight can help.”

Or when I suspected a patient had sleep apnea, I’d explain how weight loss could alleviate their symptoms.

For patients newly diagnosed with hypertension or Type 2 diabetes, I’d advise that even a modest 5-10% reduction in body weight could reverse their condition.

This was sound, evidence-based medical advice. But delivering it while carrying an extra 35 pounds myself and falling into the overweight BMI category felt hypocritical.

I couldn’t hide from the truth—not even from myself. My scrub pants no longer fit. I started using my white coat to camouflage my body, wondering if my patients thought, “Who are you to talk about weight loss when you look like you could lose some yourself?”

As physicians, whether we like it or not, we are role models. Studies have shown that patients are more likely to trust and act on advice from physicians who visibly exemplify the behaviors they advocate. A 2013 study published in Obesity found that patients who perceived their doctors as overweight were significantly less likely to trust their advice about healthy weight management.

Yet, here I was, out of shape and overweight, wondering how I got here.

The Prevalence of Overweight Physicians

Physicians aren’t immune to the challenges of maintaining a healthy weight. Studies show that approximately 40% of doctors in the United States are overweight, and about 23% are obese, paralleling trends seen in the general population. The pressures of long hours, emotional stress, and disrupted routines make physicians particularly vulnerable to weight gain.

How Did I Get Here?

As a child, teen, and young adult, I maintained a normal BMI and slender physique. But during medical school, residency, and years of practice, I adopted eating habits that set me on a path to weight gain. Here are the four primary habits I developed and that I've seen many other physicians have developed as well. 

1. Disconnecting From My Body’s Signals
   During training, I learned to ignore my body’s basic needs. Hunger, thirst, sleep, even bathroom breaks were often pushed aside for the sake of patient care.

   I remember the moment when it all started where as a third-year medical student scrubbed into an 8-hour vascular surgery, I ignored my growling stomach and dry mouth while retracting for the surgeon. Feeling lightheaded under the operating lights, I told myself, “Just push through it.”

2. A Scarcity Mindset Around Food
   The mantra, “Eat, pee, and sleep while you can,” ruled our lives. In preparation for unpredictable schedules, I stuffed my coat pockets with granola bars and cookies, eating them whether I was hungry or not and as fuel to keep me going through the night. 

3. Mindless Eating
   During my intern year we had Grand Rounds every weekday at noon. And we were told to eat while you listen. Charting while eating a sandwich for dinner was also something I learned from my seniors.  Snacking while working at the computer was also common place for us all.  This habit of mindlessly eating made it easy to overeat and hard to feel truly satisfied.

4. Buffering With Food
   The stress of working in the ER led me to use food as a coping mechanism and also as a reward for making it through another crazy shift. I would find myself justifying the pizza or doughnuts that were brough into the ER by saying, "You deserve to eat that given the day you're having." When I got home, a big bowl of ice cream felt like a well-earned treat—a temporary escape from the day’s exhaustion.

The Path to Reconnection

My wellness and weight loss journey initially was driven by calorie counting and trying to out exercise my poor nutrition which led to only temporary results and yo-yoing with my weight. It wasn't until I got to the root cause of the issue and relearning how to connect with my hunger and satiety levels, process my emotions without turning to food and ending the scarcity around food that I was able to achieve lasting weight loss. 

Here’s how I did it:

1. Understanding My Body’s Signals

I had to retrain myself to recognize hunger, thirst, and fatigue. For example, I’d often mistake a headache for hunger when it was actually tension in my neck and shoulders. Instead of eating, I began addressing the root cause—taking breaks, stretching, and breathing deeply. I became more mindful not only of my hunger and satiety cues but also ate my meals more mindfully especially when I was not in the hospital or ER. 

2. Processing My Emotions Without Buffering

I learned to sit with emotions like stress and overwhelm rather than suppressing them with food. Feeling my feelings—without resistance or escape—helped me develop resilience.

3. Managing Cravings and Snacking

Even though I had a sweet tooth and had been someone who snacked through out the day,  I learned that I didn't have to act on every impulse to eat and practiced the skill of feeling desire for something but not acting on it. With time I deconditioned the habit of acting on my cravings and felt so much more in control around food and it stopped calling my name. 

A Call to Action

As doctors, we’ve been trained to disconnect from our bodies to meet the demands of our profession. But this mindset isn’t sustainable—for us or our patients.

It’s time to reject the idea that sacrificing our health is a prerequisite for being a good doctor. By reconnecting with our bodies, understanding our needs, and processing our emotions, we can reclaim our health and set a better example for our patients.

These are all simply a set of skills that most of us didn't learn along the way, but that anyone can begin to learn and implement now. 

When we practice self-care, we bring ourselves into wholeness, enabling us to practice medicine with excellence and compassion.

To my fellow Mama Docs: let’s prioritize our wellness so we can better serve our patients, our families, and ourselves.

Want help doing it? Click here to apply to work with me inside my signature Mama Docs Weight Loss Accelerator program.