R Kausman | PubMed Health

PubMed2000

A new perspective to long-term weight management. Is there a better way?

BACKGROUND: To manage the increasing rate of excess weight and obesity, individual health care providers and many health promotion programs have focused on encouraging people to lose weight, and/or achieve a certain weight, for optimal health. The focus has been on the person's weight, in other words, on the 'end point'. OBJECTIVE: This article provides a theoretical background to the need to think of the issue of weight management in a new way. DISCUSSION: In an environment that has been described as 'obesogenic', past and current strategies have not succeeded in creating positive change. The time has come for a new 'process orientated', more holistic focus.

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PubMed2000

Tips for long-term weight management.

BACKGROUND: Finding the best way to help our patients achieve and maintain the most healthy weight they can is not simple. There are many factors that can contribute to an individual exceeding his or her most healthy weight, including a complex mix of behavioural and biological variables. OBJECTIVE: This article explores some of the important strategies people need to employ to achieve and maintain the healthiest weight that is possible for them. DISCUSSION: Unfortunately, there is no standard advice for weight management. Rather, it is about helping each patient find a balance between the amount of energy consumed in food and drink and the amount of energy expended. We need to help our patients gather all the relevant information, and find the best way of assisting them to put that knowledge together. The best plan of action also involves helping our patients work on why they are having difficulty achieving and maintaining a healthy weight, having the right perspective, and helping them develop some new skills to achieve long term change.

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