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The U.S. obesity prevalence was about 42% in 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Conditions related to obesity include diabetes, heart disease, stroke and some cancers. The CDC also said these diseases are among the leading causes of preventable, premature death.
Fortunately, there are several options when it comes to maintaining your weight.
, said she encourages patients to use traditional methods like diet and exercise.
She recommends 60 minutes of exercise three times a week, avoiding trans fat, and moderating your intake of sugar and liquid calories. Dr. Pardo also stressed the importance of avoiding restrictive diets.
鈥淚f you’re starving yourself, when you finally start eating, your body starts accumulating all the calories, because it thinks 鈥榳hen am I going to starve again.鈥� So you start taking extra into your reserve,鈥� Dr. Pardo explained.
Although diet and exercise can be effective, Dr. Pardo said results could be hard to maintain when only using the two methods alone.
鈥淲e know that diet and exercise alone 鈥� even though they could be successful in helping weight loss 鈥� they fail in maintenance,鈥� she said.
Your lifestyle can also make it more challenging to incorporate diet and exercise into your daily routine.
鈥淎nd then you have people that have obesity鈥� they have limitations in their activity, Dr. Pardo said. 鈥淭hey have arthritis or respiratory problems because they’re carrying that extra weight. That makes it much harder to be more active.鈥�
Other options include weight loss medication, but Dr. Pardo warns patients to be weary of gimmicks.
鈥淥besity is not a one single-cause problem, and not one thing caused the obesity, so we can’t expect that one ingredient is going to then make you lose all the weight,鈥� she said.
Prescription medications for weight loss have evolved over the years, and Dr. Pardo said weight loss clinics have produced some degree of success with medications like phentermine, and B-12 injections. However, she said newer medication 鈥� GLP-1 agonists such as ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro 鈥� have been proven to be very effective.
鈥淭hese are now injectables instead of pills, and so far, the results are very promising. The problem is, of course, we don’t have long term data,鈥� she said.
Some people can’t tolerate them due to the side effects, which include gastrointestinal issues. Some may not experience any weight loss.
鈥淪o it’s like any tool. It may or may not work. But as of now, these are the medications that have proven to be the most efficacious,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hey can cause somewhere between five and 10% weight loss within several months.鈥�
Dr. Pardo also said GLP-1 agonists are a good alternative to bariatric surgery, another effective weight loss option.
The聽 American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery recently dropped the body mass index requirement from 40 to 35 without comorbidities and from 35 to 30 for people with comorbidities. Dr. Pardo praised the changes, saying surgery 鈥渃an reverse diabetes fully, so why wait?鈥�
Cost can be a deterring factor in receiving bariatric surgery, but Dr. Pardo said insurances are now covering the procedure more freely. She added that the data showed that it was more affordable to pay for surgery versus the prolonged, ongoing treatment of not only obesity or medications, but diabetes.
Only about one percent of people that qualify for surgery receive it. According to Dr. Pardo, this is because of the stigma associated with the procedure.
鈥淎nd the reality is that death from the surgery is less than half a percent. Bariatric surgery now is safer than a hip replacement, it鈥檚 safer than even taking your gallbladder out,鈥� she said.
Dr. Pardo also highlighted that bariatric surgery is not the end of a patients’ weight loss journey. Someone who just underwent the procedure must focus on nutrition and portion control since the stomach will be smaller. This includes learning to read labels, and consuming high protein and healthy fats.
Obesity is a chronic disease most people will fight their entire lives, and Dr. Pardo says the goal is to help people live healthier, longer lives.
鈥淓ven if you’re successful in weight loss, it doesn’t mean that you’re done, you still have to prevent weight regain.鈥�
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