The advice to lose weight is not enough

The advice to lose weight is not enough

Is obesity a disease or not?
No doubt most of us could answer yes without thinking twice.
But not all doctors agree.

Being obese, for example, can mean having a high percentage of visceral fat , or that type of dangerous adiposity, which envelops the organs in order to protect them, but which when it is too much compromises their correct functionality.

Let’s say, however, that a slightly fat person comes to the doctor with accurate tests, which suggests that he is in good health.

Would it be fair to advise you to lose weight anyway, if for example you have good cholesterol, good blood sugar, normal blood pressure and normal triglycerides?
What if the accumulation of fat is on the hips and not on the belly?

Answering this question may not be automatic .

In this article , Dr. Elisabeth Poorman points out that  telling a patient that they need to lose weight is a double-edged sword . This is if the patient is not given precise nutritional and behavioral indications to follow.

Which is why she stopped telling patients that they must lose weight at all costs , unless their health is compromised by their extra pounds.

The reflection that Dr. Poorman came to , following her experience with patients, is the following.

If you are not in a position to guide the patient to a correct lifestyle and provide him with an adequate meal plan, telling him that he needs to lose weight when he is overweight may not help.

At the moment, there are tons of ways to lose weight and a real business behind it.

If the patient is left to fend for themselves, feeling that weight loss is a necessity, they may opt for the wrong solutions, such as purchasing supplements or signing up for a restrictive weight loss program that can undermine their health.

Unfortunately, the case that the doctor highlights is much more common than you think.
Also in Italy.

Many readers of Dcomedieta write to me telling me the same thing.
I went to the doctor and he told me to lose weight.
I went to the doctor and she said: move more.

The question is: how?
Often my readers don’t know which way to turn.
They went to the doctor (a specialist) about a health problem, the answer they got is: lose weight.
Well, perfect, but where to start? 

Here is my modest proposal .
Rather than searching the net for everything and immediately, if a specialist has told you that you need to lose weight, the first thing to do is to go back to your doctor.

In fact, since 2009, there has been a project called SAFE (Lifestyle, Nutrition, Drug, Physical Exercise), promoted by the FIMMG which aims to help the doctor (through an algorithm and guidelines) to develop a slimming path. for his patient. A practical and easy manual that you can print and present to your doctor is available here.  Let’s say that the doctor does not want to join the project, for reasons unknown to me but that he will tell you.

At this point, he must prescribe a diet for you, appoint a dietician or nutritionist, for example from the clinic, to design the meal plan and propose control sessions to the patient.

All this, being the patient obese and therefore suffering from the disease according to the Health System, without the patient paying a cent.

So, assert yourself. Before relying on your neighbor’s diet or your cousin’s program, let us rely on the attending physician and ask him to help us lose weight, but in good health.

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