Let me explain with my current situation. I am 22 F and I currently weigh 305lbs.
I am obese. Morbidly obese.
Even though I have been trying for 5 years at this point to lose the weight on my own. Eat healthier, eat more fruits and veggies, cut out excess sugar, walk more, exercise more, the whole kit and caboodle.
But I still am not losing the weight. I am still very fat. And I am worried that it will cause very serious health problems.
So I talked with my doctor and she told me “We need to get you on a weight loss medication. Let’s try Ozempic”.
But my insurance told us that they don’t think I need the Ozempic so they won’t pay for it.
So we tried Wegovy and Mounjaro. But my insurance still rejected our requests.
They’re saying because I am young, and I am a diabetic with good numbers, I dont need the weight loss meds and I can just lose the weight naturally.
But ive been trying to and it hasn’t been working. So that’s why my doctor prescribed me the weight loss med.
Why is this allowed? Why is it that your insurance can deny you a medication, even if your doctor says you need it?
It’s just math in the same way basketball is just a bunch of physics 101 problems. Yes, but the hard part is taking it from paper to doing it with biology. Your brain is struggling to get you to have an excess when there’s more than enough because animals whose brains didn’t do that were less likely to survive lean times. Add in complications like hypothyroidism and other endocrine and metabolic issues, some people are going to really struggle in ways others might not. For some the cravings will be far more intense than they can bear, and that’s why going in steps and waiting until that step is comfortable and sustainable before the next step is so useful.
Food can serve in many roles, some of which are healthy, such as a bonding exercise, cultural expression, and nutrition, others are unhealthy like stimulation and emotional comfort. One of the important things about my method is that the maintenance and early loss steps are going to challenge your negative relationships with food and find more healthy forms of stimulation and emotional comfort if those are reasons you overeat. A small weight is a great replacement for stimulation as is a glass of water or a walk. And learning to handle emotional distress without destructive coping mechanisms such as overeating is vital, here too I’ve found exercise to be a magnificent replacement. (Yeah basically any time anything happens or I feel anything I take a walk or bike ride)
Oh also I totally forgot to mention the self esteem elements. I’m not going to say nobody can hate themselves skinny, I’ve seen it, but the people who do it are rarely the sorts one should emulate. Much easier is to love yourself and your body enough to do this for yourself. “I deserve to have a body that I am physically and emotionally comfortable with” is just so much better of a mantra for when you’re hungry or struggling to exercise than something about hating how fat you are. You want to learn to look in the mirror with love and kindness and as time goes on with pride. Firstly because it’s not like fat people are less deserving of love and kindness. But also because you’re doing this for you, and it’s a hell of a lot easier to do something difficult for someone you love than out of spite. And that spite will fade as you lose weight anyways, and it may coincide with sagging skin.
But also, hugely important is that hating yourself is a fast track to disordered eating and overshooting weight loss as well as developing weight focused body dysmorphia (ie inability to see your healthy weight as healthy). I have a loved one who wound up hospitalized for anorexia, so it’s something I feel is important to acknowledge and avert the risks of. It’s better to be overweight and living an active and happy lifestyle than to be anorexic. General rule is a little over is better than a little under, but a lot over can be worse than a little under.