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Weight Management 101

First lets define obesity.  What is being overweight?  In the most simple of terms obesity means excess fat.  I am not going to bother you with much detail or medical terminology.  By now if you are overweight you now you are.  (Unless you are like a friend who says old age is anyone 10 years older than he is, and obese is anyone 10 pound heavier) 

So I am overweight. Some may say All in my family are heavy, or I just have a heavy frame.  I mean what is the big deal of being fat?

Obesity is unfortunately a health problem.  It causes:

• stress to the joints and development of osteoarthritis


• Increases the risk of diabetes up to 60 times in some cases


• Complications during surgery are increase


• Coronary artery disease is increase


• May cause severe depression and problems with self esteem

Is losing weight worth the effort?
This is a more complex question than what it seems.  For the most part the answer is yes; it is worthwhile for most people.  A moderate loss of 10 to 15 pounds can make a tremendous change in blood pressure, diabetes control, and even arthritis and cholesterol problems.  This holds true even if you are overweight by 50 or even a 100 pounds. 

Now the buts.

1. Weight loss only help you as long as you maintain the weight loss. 
   

2. There are dangerous ways of losing weight especially for senior citizens, and people with medical conditions. 
   

Medications, or "natural" weight loss pills can cause hearth arrhythmia, increase blood pressure, even exacerbate conditions like diabetes or thyroid conditions

Extreme diets, like many liquid only diets, can cause nutritional deficits in seniors who have absorption problems as well as create gastric complications, skin rashes, and even hair loss.

3. The yo-yo effect, a very real and unhealthy problem that arises when a person stops a diet and resumes a "normal" intake.  The vast majority of individuals, 90-95% to be exact, regain the weight, many with even extra weight. 
   

Most people like to simplify as much as we can.  People that usually try to sell you a product or a diet often oversimplify weight management.  " A simple pill to burn your fat" Or a diet were you can eat all you want. 

Weight management is not simple.  Hence the lack of easy answers.  We are constantly bombarded with information about nutrition and exercise, many time they are conflicting.  The American Heart association wants you to eat less fat and proteins and more carbohydrates.  Yet your friend has been losing several pounds doing the opposite while following the famous "Sugar Busters".  One day we hear coffee causes cancer and the next we hear it may have anticancer agents.  Alcohol has constantly being vilified, yet it could reduce heart disease when use in moderation.  The list goes on and on. 

This is a complex matter and there is no one right answer.  And beware of whom tell you otherwise.  The old cliché: if its seems too good to be true it isn't" finds a perfect example.

When growing up I use to spend hours with my friends arguing " What is the most important component of a car?"

1. The wheel which allows it to roll.
   

2. The engine that provides the power.
   

3. The steering and break systems that allow control.
   

It was difficult to understand at that age that an automobile is a complex object that requires all its parts to become a "car".  Otherwise, a car without any of those components it no more than trash. 

Weight management like a car is a complex process of many equally important parts:
Nutrition, exercise, health status, support, goals. 



This is the weight management car.  It shows its major components which make it a car, a machine to move forward and get you places, for us a machine to combat obesity.

1. Nutrition and exercise roll you forward.
   

2. Motivation is the engine that provides the power.
   

3. Support that goes in the trunk for when needed will be your doctor, a nutritionist, friend and family.
   

4. Goals, which makes the chassis and frame of the car, the foundation on which the other elements are laid and held together in a synergistic entity.
   

What are your reasons to lose weight?  Improve your health.  Feel good about yourself.  Improve your self-esteem.  Get into that dress in your closet.

Make sure you now what are your goals, remember they serve as the foundation of your weight management.  Then you can put on the wheels: exercise and nutrition. 

Exercise is important, not as much as a weight control tool but as a health maintenance process.  It will take an average Joe 400 miles of running to burn off 10 pounds of fat.  Yet it is very important to maintained lean body mass, that is your muscles, which include your heart and your arteries and veins.  Maintaining lean mass prevents yo-yo effects. 

Nutrition is the other wheel.  Nutrition is the cornerstone of weight control.  The objective in a good weight management program is provide you with the ability to turn a diet into a eating habit.  Diets should only serve as a start of a life long change in eating habits that will keep weight management throughout the rest of your life. 

Your Health is very important.  Both your physical and mental health will allow you to drive the car. 

Now we now go to support.  Let me talk here about Lite Weight.  Lite Weight is a medically supervised weight management program.  We have a full team including nurses; nutritionist and other personnel who will help you built up a nice Weight management automobile.