Weight Management Goals & Objectives
Ideal Body Weight
It might seem sensible to consider a return to 'ideal' body weight as
being the proper aim of a weight management program. Surely, you might
ask, there is no point in all that effort unless the patient is going
to get back to his or her ideal weight?
Ideal Body Weight Goal
There are many sound reasons not to set an ideal weight loss goal. For
instance:
The body's physiological responses to decreased
food intake serve to limit weight loss; it is unusual to return to the
ideal weight with dieting, unless the patient is particularly determined
and focused. Repeated failure to achieve ideal weight may increase the
patient's sense of failure and further reduce self-esteem.
This helps to explain why research shows
that most patients are unable to continue losing weight for longer than
12-16 weeks, with a 4-8kg loss tending to be the maximum achieved.
Weight Loss - Health Benefits
Even small losses of weight will have large health and other benefits:
Substantial reductions in mortality associated with obesity can accrue
from modest weight losses such as 5kg in one year
Long-term health depends on limiting weight gain over a number of years,
not on getting rid of excess weight quickly only to regain it again.
The priority in obesity management, therefore,
is on weight maintenance and modest weight loss rather than a return to
ideal weight.
Weight Management Program
A routine weight management program will look something like this:
- Decide an agreed level of weight loss
- Plan a 12-week structured program for weight loss
- Plan a further 12-week structured program for weight maintenance
- Renegotiate further weight loss with the patient after a period of weight
stability.
Source: http://www.hebs.scot.nhs.uk/
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