Weight Loss

Weight Loss General Information

Weight Loss is defined as a reduction of the individual’s total body weight through loss of adipose tissue, body fat or fluid or through the loss of lean mass (bone-mineral deposits, tendon, muscle tissue, etc). Unintentional weight loss may be caused by several medical conditions. Type 1 diabetes mellitus may cause this in cases where the affection is poorly managed; the affection causes triglycerides to be released from the patient’s adipose tissue and also the breakdown of amino acids in the patient’s muscle tissue. This leads to a massive reduction in body weight due to loss of both lean mass and fat – however, untreated cases of diabetes mellitus will worsen rapidly, before the loss of weight becomes significant.

Unintentional Weight Loss may be caused by a large number of clinical factors. Illness (such as diabetes, HIV infections, hyperthyroidism and other hormonal disturbances), low fluid intake or complete lack of it, medication and a number of other factors may cause loss of weight. Studies have shown that even fidgeting may be a cause for unintended body weight reduction.

In some cases, the loss of weight may be intentional. Such situations occur when the individual is attempting to improve health, fitness or appearance either with the assistance of a specialized health care professional or by themselves. The loss of body weight comes as a result of a negative energetic balance – as in, the organism consumes more energy than it is able to gain from food and nutritional supplements (if any). In such cases it will attempt to normalize the balance by using the muscle and fat reserves. For therapeutic reasons, the goal is to fully conserve the organism’s fluid and muscle reserves while consuming the fat.

Weight Loss

Most commonly, health care professionals recommend a combination of a dietary regimen and physical exercise to patients that wish to lose weight. This is the least intrusive method for losing weight, and in most cases it is sufficient to achieve the desired results. The increased physical effort demands a higher amount of energy which burns the organism’s reserves while the caloric reduction attained through the adjustments brought to the eating patterns serves to ensure that the organism does not fully replenish the used resources. In time, the Weight Loss becomes significant.

The Weight Loss dietary regimen relies on restrictions concerning certain foods, certain categories of foods or foods in general in order to reduce the individual’s body weight. However, as the metabolic factors and lifestyle differ, there is no universal diet that works for everyone. In other words, a diet that has worked for one individual is not necessarily suitable for another one. Also, it has been reported that although a large percent of the patients undergoing dietary therapy are able to achieve satisfactory results relatively fast, less than 20% of the individuals that lose 10% of their body weight or more are able to maintain their new weight for twelve months or more.

Many of the dietary regimens take into account the caloric content of the foods that an individual ingests, as well as the number of calories that he or she uses during an average day, and aim at creating a caloric deficit – basically providing a means of controlling the caloric intake so that it is lower than the number of calories used by the organism. This can also be achieved by maintaining the same daily caloric intake, but increasing the number of calories used per day – most commonly through physical workout or an increase in general physical activity throughout the day.

Other types of Weight Loss diets concentrate on limiting or restricting the consumption of certain types of food – for example, some diets consist of ceasing fat intake while others revolve around distinguishing between types of carbohydrates, avoiding certain types and compensating through a high fiber intake. Following such a diet may or may not require physical exercise; however the results are not reliable.

Most diets continue indefinitely, in order to preserve the benefits obtained through dieting, namely maintaining the body weight at the desired threshold. However, some diets are designed to yield short term results – over a month, a week or even a few days. The Crash Diet for example refers to a Weight Loss dietary plan where the individual does not eat at all for two or three days, reducing the energy intake to zero while the energy consumption remains the same. Artists and celebrities often employ such dietary regimens before social events in order to preserve their public image. This however does not guarantee stable results and may pose a serious risk to the individual’s health, especially if this method is used often.

It should be noted however that many of the commercially available dietary regimens are not reliable. If you would like to obtain adequate indications regarding a proper diet, you should consult with a specialized health care professional or a nutritionist.

Weight Loss Treatment

Weight Loss drugs are pharmaceutical products that have an effect on the patient’s appetite, metabolism or the organism’s ability to absorb certain substances from the ingested food. However, as with all medication, these drugs may cause a number of side effects over the course of the weight control therapy. As such, medication therapy is not one of the first choices of specialized health care professionals, and it is generally employed only in situations where diet and exercise are not sufficient to provide a means of controlling the individual’s body weight. Apart from that, these drugs may only be used if the benefits of the therapy clearly outweigh the associated risks.

Examples of drugs that may serve as means of body weight control are Orlistat, Sibutramine, Metformin, Byetta, Symlin or Rimonabant. Surgery may also be performed in order to achieve and maintain Weight Loss. The currently available procedures can be grouped in three categories – predominantly malabsorbtive procedures (procedures that are based on malabsorption), predominantly restrictive procedures (procedures that reduce stomach size) and mixed procedures, which result from a combination of both previous types of surgery.