General Advice for Losing Weight
In this topic, you can explore the various treatment options available to you. Some of the sections within this topic are aimed at healthcare professionals. If you need any further information please contact your doctor.
The main treatment for obesity is eating less and exercising more. To lose weight you must burn more energy on average each day than you consume in your diet. Energy is measured in calories (kcal).
Decreasing your calorie intake by 100 calories each day over a year is equal to a weight loss of 10 pounds (10lbs) over 1 year. Walking 2 to 3 miles each day for a year is roughly equal to 1 stone in weight loss even if you did not change the amounts of calories you consume.
Diet programmes can produce weight loss in the short term, but keeping your weight off long-term can be a problem. Effective weight loss does require making permanent lifestyle changes by incorporating an exercise regime into your daily life and by lowering your calorie intake. In the general population, only 20% of people are successful at long-term weight loss maintenance. In a more structured setting, however, 67% of people who lost greater then 10% of their body mass maintained or continued to lose weight one year later. An average maintained weight loss of more then 3 kilograms or 3% of total body mass could be sustained for five years.
