If you are under pressure with your weight, regular physical activity and healthy eating habits may help you lose weight and protect against it over the long term. If these lifestyle changes – exercise and dietary changes – are not effective for you to lose weight, your health care provider may prescribe medications or surgery as advanced weight-loss treatments.
However, you should opt for prescription weight-loss medicines along with and not in place of diet and exercise. Losing weight slowly and regularly is frequently healthier than losing a great deal rapidly because it is more apt to keep off once a person attains their target weight.
To define overweight or obesity, healthcare professionals use the Body Mass Index (BMI), which is a measure of your weight proportionate to your height. People are considered overweight when they have a BMI between 25 and 30. Having a BMI of 30 or more is defined as obesity. A healthcare professional can evaluate your risk triggered by your weight.
Benefits And Side Effects Of Using Prescription Weight-Loss Medicines
A doctor sometimes prescribes medication like orlistat (Xenical) to assist a person to lose weight. However, they generally only do this if exercise and dietary changes have not brought about weight loss or the weight of the person causes a major risk to their health. Thus, people should use medication together with a lowered-calorie diet and Orlistat does not take the place of lifestyle changes.
After a year, on average, people who use prescription medications alongside lifestyle changes lose 3 to 12% more of their initial body weight compared to people who are in a lifestyle program without taking medication.
Side effects involve gastrointestinal symptoms like fatty stool and increased or reduced defecation. Certain people have reported undesirable effects on the respiratory system, joints, muscles, and headaches, among others.
Surgery as A Weight-Loss Treatment
Bariatric surgery for weight loss entails changing or removing a part of the stomach or small intestine of a person to facilitate them not to eat as much food or take in as many calories as earlier.
This can help a person lose weight and lower the risk of type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and other traits of metabolic syndrome that can happen with obesity.
A doctor may advise surgery for an individual who has a BMI of 30 or above, based on their requirements, including whether or not they experience complications because of their obesity and the efficacy of non-surgical treatments they have already gone through.
Hormonal Treatment For Weight Loss
People with obesity might one day get help from hormonal treatment. Scientists in a study in 2014 observed that part of the achievement of bariatric surgery may be the effect it has on gut hormones. Hence, exploiting these hormones could result in innovative, non-surgical options. The researchers propose that the combination of some hormones might offer a useful therapy.
Conclusion
People having serious health problems due to their weight may take advantage of advanced weight-loss treatments, such as prescription weight-loss drugs or surgery.
Dietary changes and exercise can help in many cases. If these are not effective, a doctor may advise some advanced weight loss treatment.
