What Are The Treatment Modalities for Obesity?

Obesity can develop due to multiple reasons, including dietary habits, sedentary lifestyle, genetic factors, health condition, or the use of certain medicines. Various treatment modalities are available to help people to achieve and maintain a healthy weight.

1. Dietary changes

Replacing high-fat foods, avoiding empty calories and most importantly a negative energy balance can help a person to lose weight.

When a person consumes more calories than they use they tend to gain weight and accumulate fat. Over time, this can lead to weight gain.

Some types of food stuffs are more likely to lead to weight gain. Some processed foods contain additives, such as high-fructose corn syrup and the consequence is additional weight gain.

Reducing the intake of processed, refined, and convenience food that is high in sugar and fat, while increasing the consumption of natural, fresh foods like whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables can be helpful in losing weight.

High-fibre diet gives you satiety for long term, thus you get controlled appetite and less temptations to eat more. Whole grains help a person to feel full for longer, because they get absorbed more slowly.

Your dietician can help to suggest a healthy diet plan and lifestyle change for suitable weight-loss.

Avoid crash-dieting

• Trying to lose weight quickly by crash-dieting holds numerous risks:
• Muscle loss
• Macro and micro nutrient deficiencies
• Dehydration
• Rapid weight regain

2. Physical activity

Consistent physical activity is imperative for good health, and it’s particularly vital if you’re trying to lose weight.

When losing weight, more physical activity increases the amount of calories your body burns for energy requirements. Calorie consumption through physical activity, combined with reducing the number of calories you eat, generates “negative calorie balance” that results in weight loss.

Most weight loss happens because of reduced caloric intake. However, evidence shows the only way to maintain weight loss is to be engage in regular physical activity.

Most importantly, physical activity reduces risks of heart ailments and diabetes.

Physical activity also supports to–

• Maintain weight.
• Decrease hypertension
• Reduce risk for type 2 diabetes, heart attack, stroke, and different forms of cancer.
• Lessen joints pain and related disability.
• Reduce danger for osteoporosis and falls.
• Reduce signs of depression and anxiety.

3. Medications for Weight-loss

Prescription medicines to treat obesity work in diverse ways. For example, some medications may help you curb your appetite, feel full sooner or interfere with the absorption of fat.

Weight-loss medications are intended to benefit individuals who may have health problems related to overweight or obesity. Before advising a weight-loss medication, your doctor also will consider

• the likely profits of weight loss
• possible side effects of medications
• your existing medical issues and other medications
• your family’s medical history, and
• cost

Health care specialists mainly use BMI to help choose who might benefit from weight-loss medications. Medication can be advised to you if you have a BMI of 27 or more.

Weight-loss medications aren’t for everyone with a high BMI. Patients might lose with diet and lifestyle approach that will improve their  diet behaviours and improve their dietary and physical activity habits. A lifestyle program may also address other issues that affect weight gain, such as eating activates and not getting sufficient sleep. A doctor will occasionally prescribe medication, such as orlastat (Xenical) to help a person lose weight.

However, they usually only do this if:

• dietary changes and exercise have not caused enough weight loss
• the person’s weight poses a important risk to their health
• Orlastat does not replace lifestyle changes.

Side effects include gastrointestinal symptoms, such as fatty and sticky stools and increased or reduced defecation. Some people have reported undesirable effects on the respiratory system, muscles and joints, headaches, and others.

4. Surgery

Bariatric  or Weight loss surgery involves alterations of GI tract so the person does not consume as much food or absorb as many calories as earlier. It produces favourable hormonal effects which helps in losing weight as well as resolving medical issues or reduces the risk of high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, etc.

Bariatric Surgery either reduces the stomach size or bypasses some part of the intestines.

5. Browning white fat cells

Humans contain two types of fat cell, Brown-fat cells burn calories and produce heat, White-fat cells store calories. Scientists have been looking for behaviors to reprogram white-fat cells so that they perform more like brown-fat cells. They call this “beiging” fat cells.

If they can do this, they might be able to produce a treatment that can origin the body to burn fat more rapidly.

Specialists do not yet know how to attain this, but a research team who issued a review Trusted Source in Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology expressed hope that new genetic tools in the pipeline might hold the key.