Obesity treatment:
diets, exercises, weight-loss pills, plastic surgery. Their pros and contras.As more and more people in the West become overweight or obese, official bodies such as the Food and Drug Administration pour more resources into understanding and tackling the root causes of the issue. The FDA's 2004 report, 'Calories Count', emphasised the importance of food product labelling, availability of nutritional information and more research into causes and obesity treatment.
Diet therapy emphasises the importance of reducing calorie intake – rather than the consumption of different foods or strict eating plans. Reducing calorie intake is much easier for most people, and certainly makes it easier to stick to the program. This reduction in calories should be coupled with a exercise program which has been planned to suit the individual's circumstances. Those who are already obese, for example, may need to begin with low impact exercise, such as walking or swimming, and build up to a more rigorous program.
The emphasis in this successful model is on maintaining the program, in an attempt to avoid the stopping-and-starting which characterises most weight loss programs. Starting with incredibly small steps and building up is, rightly, considered better than starting with high impact measures that may not be possible to keep up.
Behavioural therapy is simply changes in behaviour and lifestyle which make it easier to stick to the diet therapy and weight loss program. Behavioural therapy can consist of measures which provide incentives for weight loss or activities which make one feel more positive about the program. Support groups, for example, form an essential part of the regime for many people. These support groups provide emotional support and practical help, and many give prizes to their most successful members each week. Other people may wish to tackle the emotional issues which led to their overeating in the first place; this may include stress or anger management or therapy for depression.
If a combination of diet and behavioural therapy have been tried for a period of six months, and inadequate results have been seen, some choose to try weight loss drugs.
The most common types of weight loss drugs are those which reduce the appetite or prevent the absorption of fat from the intestines. In some cases, antidepressants may be prescribed for the benefit of regulating serotonin production – the hormone affecting happiness and hunger. A doctor with access to the patient's medical notes is the best equipped to determine and type and dosage of weight loss drug, and a consultation is essential.