Obesity is a major health issue in the UK, with an estimated 1 in 4 adults currently living with the condition. It has been defined as having a body mass index (BMI) of over 30. Obesity can be damaging to your health and can lead to the development of many health problems, whether that’s mental or physical.
Many people have been looking at ways to help them lose their body weight. It is not an easy task; however, it is not impossible. With help from GPs and pharmacists, you can design a plan that will help with long-term, sustainable weight loss that is healthy rather than relying on riskier short term solutions like fad diets or drastic exercise routines.
How to Start Losing Weight When You are Obese
Eat Less
Food is the fuel that helps us run and give us energy; the more we eat, the more energy we have. Sometimes, however, if we consume too much, our body stores that extra energy, usually as fat.
There are two main ways to eat less than you normally do, and therefore help to lose weight.
Firstly, consider having a smaller portion size. By reducing the amount of food that you are eating, you will be decreasing the amount of energy being consumed. You will also allow yourself the freedom to still eat any type of food without restricting yourself to a particular diet.
This works well for those who enjoy eating a varied diet. In the long term, this could be a positive solution that’s easier to stick to as you are not giving up on any of the foods that you enjoy eating.
Another option is to swap out certain food items for healthier options. For example, instead of high-fat and high-sugar items, try foods with a higher nutritional value like wholegrains, fruits, vegetables or lean meats. These are high in fibre and nutrients that can help you feel full without consuming as much, and therefore help lose weight.
Get More Exercise
Exercise is another vital part of the puzzle that should help with reducing body fat and weight.
The
NHS recommends that adults should aim to do at least 150 minutes of moderate activity or 75 minutes of vigorous activity a week. Moderate activities include brisk walking, riding a bike or even pushing a lawn mower, whereas vigorous activity is more intense exercise. This could include running, swimming and sports.
Now, starting exercising can be daunting, especially if you feel as though you might not be in the best shape. However, exercising is a journey. You should start off with smaller exercises, then build yourself up. You should also spread your exercises out over the week to allow yourself time to rest.
Exercising will help you burn fat. Your body will use it as an energy source whilst you are exercising. Additionally, it’s important to highlight here that if you pair exercising with a healthy, balanced diet, this will help even more with losing weight.
Avoid Skipping Meals
You may think that skipping meals would help to lose weight. It means that you are eating less, which should lead to weight loss, right? Well, not exactly.
In the short term, yes, you might lose weight after skipping a few meals here and there. However, in the long run, it’s not a sustainable or effective method.
What may happen when you skip a meal is that your metabolism slows down. Your body goes into survival mode – slowing down various different processes to allow it to conserve energy. This means that less body fat would be burnt, and more fat stores would be made to help conserve energy. This can also make it harder to lose weight when you switch to a more effective method.
Also, if you decide to skip a meal, you would be ignoring your natural hunger cues that your brain sends to remind you to eat. To send these hunger signals, your brain sends hormones to notify you that you are hungry. By ignoring this signal, you can disrupt your body’s hormones. This could lead to overeating and over-consumption in the next meal that you eat.
Weight Loss Injections
Safe and reliable weight loss medications are available, including
weight loss injections such as Wegovy and Mounjaro. It is important to note that the weight loss injections are to be used alongside a healthy diet and increased physical exercise, and are not a replacement for them.
Many clinical trials have shown that these injections work significantly better for long-term weight loss with these lifestyle changes. These injections are usually necessary for those who have tried to lose weight naturally for a period of time before they would be prescribed.
Weight loss injections use different active ingredients, dependent on the medication itself, to mimic naturally occurring hormones in the body to help you feel fuller quicker and reduce your appetite, which should result in the consumption of fewer calories.
Weight Loss Pills
Prescription weight loss pills, like Orlistat, work differently to weight loss injections. Rather than mimicking your body’s hormones,
orlistat binds to the fat in your meals, meaning you take less energy in from the food you eat.
They too need to be taken whilst following a plan consisting of a healthy, balanced diet and increased physical activity to maximise the medication’s effects. Again, these would only be prescribed if there has been a significant effort to reduce your weight through lifestyle changes like diet and exercise.
