With around 2 billion people on the planet being overweight and 650 million of those classed as obese, there is a lot of concentration on treatment for those struggling to lose weight. Especially as research is continuing to show the damages and dangers of being overweight. For many, the weight loss process appears nothing but an uphill struggle with a large number falling at the first hurdle. But in reality, there are plenty of treatments that will kickstart your journey and make it easier to shed the pounds and keep them off. The number of people that go through the stress of yo-yo dieting is plentiful, but there are better ways to lose the weight for good. But what are those treatments?
An Overview of Losing Weight
Have you ever heard someone say “I’ve been on this diet for 6 months, but haven’t lost any weight”? This is a common thing to hear amongst people that are trying to get rid of excess weight but don’t really understand the science behind it. Replacing 2000 calories of junk food with 2000 calories of something else isn’t going to change anything.
Very simply, our body needs a certain number of calories per day to continue to function normally and give us enough energy to get through. For men, the average recommended daily calorie intake is 2500. For women, it’s slightly less at 2000 calories. This will change depending on your job and your lifestyle. For example, if you’re running 10k a day, you’ll most probably have to eat a little more to maintain your weight. But if you’re sitting behind a desk all day and the only movement you do is going to the car and back, then it’s likely you’ll need to eat less.
Calories in Vs Calories out is the simple equation to lose weight. If you eat more than you burn you’ll put weight on. If you eat less than you burn, you will lose weight. This is weight loss in layman’s terms and will depend on a few different factors such as metabolism, lifestyle, and exercise. With this in mind, we can look at some treatments with the knowledge of how they might help.
Surgery
One of the treatments that are becoming more popular amongst those with more serious weight problems is surgery. Bariatric surgery for weight loss involves changing or even removing part of a person’s stomach so the feeling of hunger is reduced and the number of calories being consumed is less. There are 2 main types of surgery you can have which are:
Gastric Band
CCS Newcastle Weight Loss Surgery specialise in gastric sleeve surgery and advise that it involves a surgeon putting a gastric sleeve or a gastric band around the stomach to make it smaller. Post-operation, a patient can’t consume more than one cup of food during each sitting. This dramatically reduces food, therefore calorie intake.
Gastric Bypass
This procedure will enable food to bypass certain parts of the digestive system. More specifically, the first part of the middle of the small intestine. It’s also known to reduce the size of the stomach. It’s known to be more effective than the restrictive procedures, but there’s a higher risk of vitamin and mineral deficiencies.
Dietary Changes
Now, when we say dietary changes we don’t mean going on a crash diet to lose weight quickly. Most of the time when people do this, they will gain back the weight they lost upon returning to a normal diet. Making dietary changes means for the long run and if you can change your mindset then there’s no doubt you’ll lose weight in a surprisingly short space of time.
Having a balanced diet is key, and ensuring you have enough of each diet section is important, especially when you’re combining healthy food with exercise. A healthy diet consists of eating at least 5 fruit and veg per day, basing meals on healthy complex carbohydrates such as whole wheat pasta or rice, some dairy or dairy alternatives, a decent amount of protein, either from meat or legumes/pulses and a small amount of healthy fat oils.
Understanding the calorie content of food is essential to maintaining healthy portion control, the reason people don’t lose weight on diets is that they’re overeating. It won’t take long to get used to healthy food, you’ll even start craving it.
Exercise
Food is 80% of a person’s ability to lose weight, but you have to pair it with exercise to have any dramatic results. Weight training is one of the best ways to lose weight, which is surprising to some. You don’t have to get on the treadmill and run 2 miles a day, instead, you can lift some weights and be far better off. Weight lifting is proven to burn calories for many hours after you have finished your session. So head down the gym and get that pump on.
Losing weight is a journey, and it’s not necessarily easy for a large number of people. If it were easy, then we wouldn’t have the number of obese people on the planet as we do. To get the ball rolling, start to understand how you can lose weight and why you want to. Get your diet under control and start exercising in small amounts. If you feel surgery is the way, then, by all means, do what you can to feel in control of your own body again.