Journey to Your Dream of Permanent Weight Loss

Overweight
Overweight may be described as a bodily condition characterised by excessive deposition or storage of fat in adipose tissue. It usually results from consumption of food in excess of physiological needs. Obesity is common among people in Western countries and among the higher income groups in India and other developing countries.
Obesity is a serious health hazard as the extra fats puts a strain on the heart, kidneys and liver as well as the large weight-bearing joints such as the hips, knees and ankles, which ultimately shortens the life span. It has been truly said, ‘ the longer the belt, the short the life. ‘ Overweight persons are susceptible to several diseases like coronary thrombosis, heart failure, high blood pressure, diabetes, arthritis, gout and liver and gall-bladder disorders.

Are You Overweight?
We have used only three methods for assessing weight factors over the last 15 years.

The First is remarkably useful, despite being an old Taoist formula from Chinese traditional medicine of the past. Take your height in feet and inches. The benchmark is 5 feet. This is represented by 110 pounds. EVERY INCH ABOVE FIVE FEET, add 5 pounds to this figure. So, 5’ 4.5’’ is 110 pounds plus 4.5 times 5 pounds = a total of 132.5 pounds. An acceptable range variation is 7 pounds above or below this figure, giving a spread of 125.5 to 139.5 pounds, within which is total normality.

The Second method involves something called Body Mass Index. Take your height in METRES. For example, 1.8 metres. Take your weight in kilos. For example, 68 kilos. Now, fill in the worked example, using your own figures.
68 kilos/(1.8 metres x 1.8 metres)
= 68 divided by 3.24 = 20.99 (This is the BMI figure)

If your BMI is well under 20.00, ie below 18, then you are UNDERWEIGHT.
If your BMI is between 20 and 25, BRILLIANT.
If your BMI is between 25 and 30, start to pay attention.
If your BMI is OVER 30, watch out. Clinicians classify this as obese.

The Third method, and probably the most significant: ARE YOU HAPPY WITH YOUR WEIGHT? You can be over the odds, technically, love your life, enjoy being you, and while the doctor might like you to shed a few pounds, it is YOUR body and YOUR life. Don’t allow ANYONE to grind you down. But if you are NOT happy, then, of course, you’re at an entirely different ball game. Do method one or two, above, to get a rough idea of where you stand.

Causes
Obesity can develop through a combination of genetic, lifestyle, and environmental factors. The chief cause of overweight, most often, is overeating - that is, the intake of calories beyond the body’s energy requirement. Some people are habituated to eating too much while others may be in the habit of consuming high-calorie foods. These people gain weight continuously as they fail to adjust their appetite to reduce energy requirements. There has, in recent times, been an increase in awareness of psychological aspects of obesity. Persons who are generally bored , unhappy, lonely or unloved, those who are discontented with their families, or social or financial standing usually tend to overeat as eating is a pleasure and solace to them.
Obesity is sometimes also the result of disturbances of the thyroid or pituitary glands. But glandular disorders account for only about two per cent of the total incidence of overweight. In such persons, the basal metabolism rate is low and they keep gaining weight unless they take a low-calorie diet.

Treatment
The fundamental element in all treatment for obesity in both children and adults is changing to a diet with less energy content, essentially by limiting the fat intake. Dietary counseling is often combined with recommendations to exercise regularly to increase energy expenditure. Drugs can be considered as complementary treatment in adults. Treatment using special protein formulas results in a much greater reduction in energy intake and thereby more pronounced weight reduction in the short term than that achieved by other methods.
To be successful, obesity treatment requires a long-term commitment, and patients must be highly motivated and involved. It is a matter of treating a chronic condition that threatens health, and is not about making cosmetic changes. However, no special measures are needed if the risk is insignificantly higher, such as in people over age 65 years. Earlier treatment strategies have assumed that short-term interventions could have permanent effects. A real problem, however, is to maintain the weight loss which has been achieved during shorter periods of time, often through different methods and a great deal of effort. It is uncertain whether long-term treatment and followup yield better and more permanent results than the methods that have been studied up to now. It is essential to apply and assess different types of long-term treatment. Gastric surgery is a treatment alternative that can be considered in cases of severe obesity, since substantial and permanent weight loss has been achieved in this patient group.
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