“Just lose weight” is bad medical advice, especially for chronically ill patients. Many chronic illnesses directly cause weight gain or make it too difficult to exercise. Doctors know this, but still tend to view a patient’s excess weight as the cause of their health problems rather than a symptom. They’re less likely to run important diagnostic tests on overweight patients and more likely to dismiss their health concerns. I’ve been taken more seriously by doctors since I lost a significant amount of weight, and that’s definitely not the way that things should be.