Diet and Exercises
- Your body weight is regulated by the number of calories you eat and use each day. Everything you eat contains calories, and everything you do uses calories, including sleeping, breathing, and digesting food.
- Research consistently shows that regular physical activity, combined with healthy eating habits, is the most efficient and healthful way to control your weight.
- Physical activity helps to control your weight by using excess calories that otherwise would be stored as fat. Any physical activity in addition to what you normally do will use extra calories.
Medications
Most available weight-loss medications are “appetite-suppressant” medications. Appetite- suppressant medications promote weight loss by decreasing appetite or increasing the feeling of being full. These medications decrease appetite by increasing serotonin or catecholamine – two brain chemicals that affect mood and appetite.
Surgical Options
Gastrointestinal surgery for obesity, also called Bariatric Surgery, changes the normal digestive process. The operations promote weight loss by decreasing absorption of nutrients and thereby reducing the calorie intake.
- Adjustable Gastric Banding
- Sleeve Gastrectomy
- Biliopancreatic diversion (BPD)
- Gastric Bypass
Adjustable Gastric Banding
In this procedure, a hollow band made of special material is placed around the stomach near its upper end, creating a small pouch and a narrow passage into the larger remainder of the stomach. The band is then inflated with a salt solution. It can be tightened or loosened over time to change the size of the passage by increasing or decreasing the amount of salt solution.
Sleeve Gastrectomy
Sleeve Gastrectomy, also referred to as Tube Gastrectomy, involves removing the lateral 2/3rds of the stomach with a stapling device. It can be done laparoscopically (keyhole surgery) but is not reversible. It basically leaves a stomach tube instead of a stomach sack.
Biliopancreatic diversion (BPD)
In this procedure, portions of the stomach are removed. The small pouch that remains is connected directly to the final segment of the small intestine (Ileum), completely bypassing the duodenum and the jejunum (the first and second section of small intestine). Although this procedure successfully promotes weight loss it may lead to nutritional deficiencies.
Roux en Y Gastric Bypass
Here a small stomach pouch is created to restrict food intake. Next, a Y-shaped section of the small intestine is attached to the pouch to allow food to bypass the lower stomach, the duodenum (the first segment of the small intestine), and the first portion of the jejunum (the second segment of the small intestine). This bypass reduces the absorption of nutrients and thereby reduces the calorie intake.