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Health & Fitness

Keep that New Year's Resolution and Maintain a Healthy Weight

January 19th – 25th is Healthy Weight Week

By Glenn Forrester, M.D., Director of Bariatric Surgery at Somerset Medical Center

 

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Weight loss continues to be one of the most popular New Year’s resolutions, with each January ushering in a marathon start of all kinds of dieting efforts. Whether you vow to avoid white sugar or eat only green things, it’s often difficult to stick to a plan that doesn’t take into account all the complexities of why people are unable to maintain a healthy weight. By February, these resolutions are often abandoned and you find yourself reverting to the same bad habits.

However, there are options for people who are ready to commit to more than just another fad diet. Obesity is a disease.  As with any with any disease, the first and best place to start is with a medical specialist who can help you find the right treatment.

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A weight loss doctor will start your visit by taking your medical history and vital signs, including your Body Mass Index (BMI), which is a ratio of your height and weight that determines whether you are a healthy weight. Knowing your BMI will help you set a goal weight and decide which strategy will give you the best chance of reaching that goal. For instance, a weight loss doctor might prescribe medications to help curb your appetite while you work with a registered dietitian to craft a customized diet plan. Registered dietitians are experts in looking at what you are currently eating and finding ways to make replacements that will get you on the right track.

Keeping a food diary or using an app like “My Fitness Pal” enables you to see how many calories you are consuming. Often my patients will tell me they are eating “healthy,” but when we look closely at their diet, we find that may not be the case. I remember one young man who was proud that he had stopped drinking soda. He had switched to orange juice, a “healthy” choice, he thought. But he was drinking about 1 gallon of orange juice a day – that’s about 1,700 calories just from his drink choice alone!

For some patients, diet and exercise alone may still not be enough. Studies show that only 2%-5% of obese patients are able to achieve sustained weight loss through conventional means. If you have a BMI over 40 or over 35 with a serious obesity-related health condition, you may want to consider bariatric surgery. Weight loss surgeries, such as Gastric Bypass, Gastric Sleeve and Gastric Band (known as LAP-BAND), are shown to help obese patients lose weight and keep it off for the long term. Weight loss surgeries restrict the amount of food you can eat in one sitting. Eat less food and typically you lose weight. In addition, Gastric Sleeve and Gastric Bypass also reduce hunger hormones, so patients report feeling less hungry. Surgery is a powerful tool that helps obese patients live healthier lives and rid themselves of illnesses such as diabetes and high blood pressure. Patients still need to eat right, so they also have nutritional counseling that teaches them how to make those choices. Depending on the surgery they choose, a motivated weight loss surgery patient can lose between 2 and 5 pounds per week.

All these options show that weight loss doesn’t have to be another one of those resolutions you make year after year with no success. Partner with a medical or surgical weight loss specialist to craft a weight loss plan that makes sense for you and next year you can be resolution-free.

Adults can calculate their BMI online at bit.ly/SMCBMICalc.

If you think you may qualify for bariatric surgery, attend a weight loss surgery seminar to learn about your options. To find a bariatric surgeon or to register for a free information session on bariatric surgery, please call 800-443-4605 or visithttp://www.somersetmedicalcenter.com/main/bariatricsurgery.aspx

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