Good Health Blog

Who should watch your weight?

- July 3, 2012

A recent update from the US preventative Services Task force recommends that all adults be screened for Obesity once a year and that those with a body mass index (BMI) over 30 be offered or referred for intensive, multicomponent behavioural intervention. Your BMI is a calculation based on your height and weight.

Thats a mouthful.

The recommendation is for weight loss programs that involve between 12 to 26 sessions a year. This is what has been proven to work.

So maybe a quick jump on the scales and a brief chat about eating better and knocking off a few kilos is not enough.

What works is someone taking an interest in you, encouraging and directing you into a program that involves more than just advice. Many programs have been developed to help people lose weight, and evidence shows that intensive programs that include a variety of activities are successful in helping people manage their weight. These programs include:

– group and/or individual sessions

– help people make healthy eating choices

– physical activity

– address issues that make it difficult to change behaviors

– help people monitor their own behaviors

– help people develop strategies to maintain healthy eating and physical activity behaviors.

Not just one program. All of them. And at least a dozen a year.

It is worth the effort. Obesity carries many medical issues and is not only readily preventable, it is readily treatable. Ask your Doctor to help, measure your BMI and change your life.

And yes the picture shows the same person after support, exercise, diet, motivation and time.