Diet & Weight Management
Weight management is a long-term approach to a healthy lifestyle. This includes balancing a healthy diet and exercise to balance energy expenditure and energy intake. Developing healthy eating habits by following tips to stay full longer can be a helpful weight management tool. Knowing your body's needs is important in managing your weight and controlling overeating and undereating.
Weight management does not include diets that promote rapid and temporary weight loss. It focuses on the long term results that can be achieved by slowly losing weight and maintaining your ideal weight based on your age, gender and height.
Obesity is a risk factor for many chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease. Weight control is a factor in preventing these chronic diseases.
Include more fruits and vegetables in your meals. Fruits and vegetables have been shown to increase satiety and reduce hunger. These products have a low energy density, mainly due to their high water content and partly due to their fiber content. It has been shown that a reduction in energy density increases the feeling of satiety. Water increases weight without adding calories, and fiber slows gastric emptying. These two factors influence the satiating effect of fruits and vegetables.
Dietary Fiber
Dietary fiber is said to help with weight control by inducing a feeling of satiety, reducing macronutrient absorption, and promoting the secretion of gut hormones. Because of the high volume or water content of high-fiber foods, fiber replaces the available calories and nutrients in the diet. Eating sticky fiber delays gastric emptying, which can lead to prolonged feelings of fullness. In general, high fiber intake at breakfast is associated with lower food intake at lunch.
Caffeine and black coffee have been linked to increased energy expenditure and subsequent weight loss. Caffeine produces a thermogenic effect in the body by increasing the activity of the sympathetic nervous system, which is a key regulator of energy expenditure.
Green tea is associated with lowering blood sugar, inhibiting the accumulation of adipose tissue in the liver and body, and stimulating thermogenesis due to the presence of catechins.
The main treatments for obesity are diet and exercise. Diet plans can result in short-term weight loss, but maintaining that weight loss is often difficult and often requires the permanent integration of exercise and a low-calorie diet into a person's lifestyle. Long-term success rates for maintaining weight loss through lifestyle changes are low, ranging from 2 to 20 percent. Diet and lifestyle changes can effectively limit excess weight gain during pregnancy and improve outcomes for both mother and child. The most effective way to treat obesity is bariatric surgery. Surgery for severe obesity is associated with long-term weight loss and reduced overall mortality.
weight loss programs often encourage lifestyle and diet changes. The American College of Physicians Guidelines for Clinical Practice make the following five recommendations:
1. Individuals with a BMI over 30 should seek counseling on appropriate diet, exercise, and other behavioral interventions, and set a realistic weight loss goal.
2. If these goals are not achieved, pharmacotherapy can be used. Individuals should be made aware of the possibility of side effects and the unavailability of long-term safety and efficacy data.
3. Drug treatment may include sibutramine, orlistat, phentermine, diethylpropion, fluoxetine, and bupropion. For more severe cases of obesity, stronger drugs such as amphetamine and methamphetamine can be used selectively. There is insufficient evidence to recommend the use of sertraline, topiramate, or zonisamide.
4.For people with a BMI over 40 who have not met their weight loss goals (with or without medication) and who are experiencing complications associated with obesity, referral for bariatric surgery may be indicated. The person should be aware of possible complications.
5. Individuals requiring bariatric surgery should be referred to referral centers with large patient numbers because surgeons who perform these procedures frequently have been shown to have fewer complications.