Two thirds of Australians are overweight or obese, leading to significant impacts on their health. Obesity is directly associated with mental health decline, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, cancer, sleep apnoea, gallstones, arthritis, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, body pain and reduced quality of life. Weight is becoming such an issue in first world nations that life expectancy in kids is now lower than in their parents.
Losing weight is now an urgent health imperative, but unfortunately it’s hard to do. Short term weight loss is often not sustained – the body adapts physiologically and resets its metabolic rate lower, which makes its easy to suffer rebound weight gain after initial efforts. But a combination of strategies employed together, along with a strong support network, can help:
- Medical interventions, such as stapling your stomach, banding or bariatric surgery are proven ways to reduce weight, but involve significant cost, rehabilitation and adjustment in lifestyle. Some medications can help get weight loss started, but unfortunately don’t translate to long term results
- Very low calorie diets work the best, but need careful supervision by a doctor and dietitian
- Lifestyle strategies have been shown to work, but require dedicated focus and discipline over time. These include aqua aerobics, green tea, community gardening, acupuncture, cycling, aerobic exercise, consuming nuts, sleeping more, watching less TV, eating at home, eating more fruits & vegetables, adhering to Ramadan and intermittent fasting
- Supportive measures such as moderating alcohol, behavioural therapy and psychological counselling also help
Here is a comparison of the medical vs lifestyle strategies in graph form: Weight chart
If you have trouble losing weight and want to, come talk to the Osana team consisting GPs, health coaches, dietitians, psychologists and exercise physios. We focus on weight loss as a common issue for our members and have had good success – see our news article in the Manly Daily: click here
References:
- https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/overweight-obesity/overweight-and-obesity-an-interactive-insight/contents/time-trends
- https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/adult/causes.html#:~:text=Obesity%20is%20serious%20because%20it,and%20some%20types%20of%20cancer
- https://www.hindawi.com/journals/bmri/2015/704539/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5891125/
- http://www.annals.edu.sg/pdf_july00/edit294.pdf
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3125014/
- https://link.springer.com/article/10.1381/096089200321594246
- http://www.mmj.eg.net/article.asp?issn=1110-2098;year=2014;volume=27;issue=1;spage=115;epage=121;aulast=Ibrahim
- https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD012436/full?highlightAbstract=reduct%7Creduction%7Cbmi
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3557740/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4157389/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6628169/#:~:text=In%20this%20meta%2Danalysis%20of,men%20but%20not%20in%20women.
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3632337/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5331580/
- https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/8/1/e019589
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4320519/#:~:text=Compared%20with%20non%2Dconsumers%2C%20daily,in%20males%20and%20females%2C%20respectively.
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5004778/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4144111/#:~:text=Compared%20with%20the%20%E2%80%9Ccomplex%20carbohydrate,greater%20reduction%20in%20fat%20mass.
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5023394/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6832593/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3698715/
- https://austinpublishinggroup.com/clinical-medicine/fulltext/ajcm-v1-id1011.php#:~:text=The%20consumption%20of%20green%20tea,triglyceride%2C%20glucose%20and%20insulin%20levels
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26990451/#:~:text=Meta%2Danalysis%20revealed%20that%20adults,24%20weeks%20compared%20with%20controls.
- https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-018-5674-4
- http://www.kheljournal.com/archives/2019/vol6issue3/PartB/6-3-8-228.pdf
- https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Masoud_Neghab2/publication/23650806_Effects_of_Fasting_and_a_Medium_Calorie_Balanced_Diet_During_the_Holy_Month_Ramadan_on_Weight_BMI_and_Some_Blood_Parameters_of_Overweight_Males/links/53e3d0a40cf25d674e91c415/Effects-of-Fasting-and-a-Medium-Calorie-Balanced-Diet-During-the-Holy-Month-Ramadan-on-Weight-BMI-and-Some-Blood-Parameters-of-Overweight-Males.pdf