Treatment Overview
Treatment for obesity and overweight will be most successful if you create a long-term plan and set reasonable goals with your doctor. Your initial goal should be to improve health, not to achieve an ideal weight. People with clinical obesity or overweight can actually be healthier, when measuring factors such as heart recovery following exercise, than sedentary normal-weighted people.
Although the formula for curing obesity and overweight seems simple, burn more calories than you take in, sounds simple, it is awfully difficult in practice, especially, if a person has lost weight before only to gain it back and then some. As a result, surgery and medication is becoming increasingly popular for people suffering from obesity and overweight. However, health guidelines suggest that people should attempt to make lifestyle changes for at least 6 months before trying surgery or medication to solve their obesity or overweight.
1. Initial Treatment
Be realistic, if you don’t think you are ready to lose weight, focus on improving your health and not gaining any weight. Obesity and overweight is more readily being seen as the end-result, not catalyst, of poor health. Improve your health and your overweight problem should soon follow suit.
I. Eating Right
Aim for a goal of 1200-1800 calories a day. Research shows that limiting calories, not food types, cause you to
lose more weight. Eat foods that you enjoy, just remember to control portion sizes.
II. Increase Physical Activity
Physical activity helps you burn more calories. One of the best ways to increase your activity is simply walking.
It is an activity you can do safely and routinely alone and is easy to work into the daily schedule. Try using a
step counter as a motivation to improve. Consult your doctor for a moderate and vigorous exercise regiments
and if it is safe for you to do them.
III. Stick With It
There are so many factors that can make us stray from our plans. So start keeping track of everything: start a
food journal, count your steps, track calories burned and factor it into your daily calorie intake. As they say,
seeing is believing and simply looking at the progress you’ve made can be the motivating factor to push you
into the next day. Just remember, battling obesity and overweight may take just as long to heal as it took to
accumulate.
2. Ongoing Treatment
See your doctor after 6 months or so to get an accurate reading on your progress. Some people stop losing weight around this time, because their bodies adjust to the fewer calories, and this effects morale. Your doctor may recommend that you increase your activity and revisit a dietician or nutritionist to further alter your diet. At this point, your goal may switch from losing weight to keeping the weight off. Don’t be discouraged, you have made substantial progress in the battle against obesity and overweight at this point.
In addition, if you cannot lose weight or keep the weight off, it may be time to consider medicines to supplement your new lifestyle change. Remember, medicines without lifestyle changes only result in short-term results at best.
3. Treatment If The Condition Gets Worse
If you’ve made a lifestyle change, but your obesity continues to get worse, it may be time to consider surgery and medicines. The following treatment options are available:
I. Stomach stapling or gastric banding – Both make your stomach smaller and are reversible surgeries.
II. Roux-en-Y bypass or biliopancreatic diversion – Makes your stomach smaller as well, but also limits how much
food is absorbed in the small intestine.