The management of obesity broadly has two facets:
- The prevention of obesity
- The correction of obesity
Prevention is better than cure and rather easier.
Based on your BMI and other disease condition, your doctor will offer a combination of the following:
There are many different approaches to dieting and it is important to be flexible to find the one that suits the individual. It is easier to move to a diet with less fat and more fibre in it. Losing weight is hard and takes tenacity.
Those who advise about diet almost invariably counsel that breakfast is the most important meal of the day and those who do not have breakfast should introduce it. Eating late at night is bad as the food rapidly turns to fat. This may be true but the evidence for these assertions is limited at best.
People who are obese may have done no exercise for many years. Your doctor will recommend an exercise regimen keeping your age and current level of fitness into account.. It must also be something that the individual will enjoy or he will not persevere. This is very important as the ethos of exercise is not just for the duration of weight loss, that is a very long process, but for life.
The value of exercise is more than just the calories expended in the session. It tends to increase basal metabolic rate and after vigorous exercise, metabolism is stimulated for the next 36 hours. It also helps people to feel good about themselves.
When people start to diet, weight often falls away quite fast at first but the rate of loss then tails away, causing dismay.
When people start exercise, weight loss may be slow and disheartening at first as muscle is built, and with it bone for a stronger skeleton. Hence, weight being static may represent fat being replaced by muscle. Not only is muscle more aesthetically satisfying than surplus fat, it is much healthier in terms of improving mobility and preventing falls and it has a much higher basal metabolic rate.
The management of obesity is a life long process. Attitudes towards diet and exercise must change for life.
Doctors in addition to Diet and Exercise, prescribe a medication like orlistat () to patients depending upon their profile.
Several studies have shown the benefit of orlistat () in obese patients – along with a strict regimen of diet & exercise. |
Management of Obesity
) to patients depending upon their profile.