A very popular topic is food, weight loss and overall health. We talk about it in the work place, at home, on social media and hear all about it on television. Despite the popularity of the topic, many Americans continue to show a lack of understanding when it comes to achieving a healthy weight and balanced lifestyle.
Proof of this lack of understanding comes from statistics from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Center for Health, and they show that two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese. Additionally, a survey done in 2010 by the Foundation of Food and Health states that 70 percent of Americans said they were concerned about their weight status and 77 percent said that they were struggling to lose weight or maintain their weight.
Many of you have battled with maintaining a healthy weight and have found losing weight to be even harder. Statistics by the Foundation of Food and Health show that the vast majority of Americans initially try to lose weight by dieting and/or exercise.
And for some, this works. But if you’ve tried and failed enough at losing weight, you might believe that “simply” (we know it’s not simple!) dieting and exercise doesn’t work for you. And you might be right.
Some diets don’t work at all and none of them work for everyone-all bodies respond differently. So how do you figure out what works for you? Hopefully with this series we can simplify options.
Fact: There are currently four proven ways to achieve weight loss:
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Diet and Exercise
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Medicinal Weight Loss
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Non Surgical Gastric Balloons
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Surgical Weight Loss
We will introduce each in this article, but will go on in future articles to expound on each.
Diet and Exercise
Although losing weight by dieting and exercise is not guaranteed, eating well and being active are critical for our health. The most natural way to lose weight is through changing eating habits and finding ways to be more active – in short – burn more calories than you consume.
As we discussed earlier, losing weight by dieting and exercising can be tricky. There is no “one size fits all” solution to long-term weight loss – all bodies respond differently to different things. We have to consider genetics, health conditions, age, gender, and other factors.
In order to achieve long-term weight loss, you have to adapt a diet and exercise routine you can maintain-one that enables you to sustain health and energy. We will discuss different dietary and exercise approaches to weight loss at length in article 2 of this series.
Medicinal Weight Loss
Most people battling obesity have tried diet and exercise programs with little long-term success. With so many causes of obesity, often times, permanent weight loss is extremely difficult to achieve. If long-term weight loss is not happening, you might need to consider trying something different.
There are a number of different weight loss medications that have been thoroughly tested for safety and efficiency and have been approved by the FDA in recent years. This weight loss path can help patients achieve their goals, without the stress of extreme dieting. However, if these medications are effective, they must be continued or rapid weight regain will occur when the medication is stopped.
We will discuss different popular medications and the pros and cons of each in article 3 of this series.
Non Surgical Gastric Balloons
New non-surgical procedures have recently become a viable option for weight loss and approved by the FDA. Procedures like the Obalon Gastric Balloon System facilitate weight loss by taking up space in your stomach so you eat less.
We will discuss this new procedure and it’s benefits in article 4 of this series.
Surgical Weight Loss
When other options have been attempted and failed, weight loss surgery can be the ultimate answer. It is very important to speak with a qualified and reputable bariatric doctor if you are considering weight loss surgery. Weight loss surgery is not for everyone, there are several different qualifications you must meet in order to be considered for a weight loss procedure.
A few basic qualifications are:
- You need to have a BMI (Body Mass Index) of 40 or more-or you need to be 100+ pounds overweight.
- Or you need to have a BMI of 35 or more and at least two obesity related co-morbidities (type 2 diabetes, hypertension, sleep apnea and other respiratory disorders, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, osteoarthritis, lipid abnormalities, gastrointestinal disorders, or heart disease).
If you can relate to either of these situations, weight loss surgery might be a good option for you. The most common bariatric surgery procedures are: gastric bypass, sleeve gastrectomy, and the duodenal switch (DS). We will be discussing each of these procedures in detail in article 5 of this series. We will talk about the advantages and disadvantages, the risks or side effects you could experience, and the details about the actual procedure and the recovery.
Find out here if you are a candidate for weight loss options mentioned in this article.
Series:
Introduction: The 4 proven ways to lose weight
#3 Non Surgical Devices / Gastric Balloons