Treatments for Obesity
Getting to a healthier weight for your height and age should be the goal for any treatment plan for someone struggling with obesity. Your health can start to improve with just a 10% to 15% body weight loss. That equates to about a 10 to 20 pound loss for someone who weighted 200 pounds at the start of the treatment. Slow and steady weight loss is the healthiest and safe way to lose weight. A rule of thumb is to shoot for a 1 to 2 pound a week weight loss.
Your doctor can help you design a weight loss treatment plan that will help you to achieve a goal of 1 to 2 pounds of weight loss a week. Your treatment plan may be a combination of prescription medication, improved diet, and exercise. Weight-loss surgery is usually not suggested until all other efforts are exhausted.
Your doctor will likely suggest that counseling be a part of your treatment plan, especially if you use food to cope with anxiety, boredom, depression or loneliness. Counseling can help you to learn new skills to deal with your feelings and the result will be that you will stop using food to deal with these feelings.
You will be more successful if your long-term goal is to achieve better health rather than a weight goal. The treatment should include lifestyle changes that should include behavior changes especially when it comes to eating. Give your lifestyle changes at least 6 months before moving on to more drastic weight loss measures.
Medicines for weight loss:
Weight loss medicines work differently depending on the medicine. Some weight loss medicines work by making you feel fuller sooner, others limit your body’s ability to absorb fat, and still others control the urge to binge eat.
Weight Loss Surgery:
Weight loss surgery is done to reduce the size of the stomach and to limit how many calories your intestines can absorb.
Changing How You Eat:
In order to lose weight obese individuals must learn to change how they eat from taking in fewer calories each day to eating at a table instead of in front of the TV. It may also involve changing eating habits like grazing and learning how to eat at specific times.
Changing What You Eat:
It is not enough to reduce your caloric intake daily, you must also change what types of food you eat. Low-calorie diets should only be used under strict doctor supervision and are not usually advised for obese people who are trying to lose weight in a healthy fashion.
A registered dietician or nutritionist can help you to design a healthy diet for weight loss. Your meals should be balanced, and nutritious. You should have a weekly meal plan that includes all food groups and contain a variety of color.
Never skip meals, as you will lose weight faster by keeping your metabolism charged by eating breakfast and then eating every 3 to 4 hours throughout the day. Never eat late (after 8p), as this will not allow for the calories to be burned off before going to bed.