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Apple cider vinegar is a common feature in many diet plans.

Some people drink it in the morning on an empty stomach, while others drink it before every meal. It is believed to aid in weight loss. But just how true is this?

Popular television personality, Dr Oz, did a feature on 'The Weight Loss Benefits of Apple Cider Vinegar' where he interviewed several people who made claims that drinking apple cider vinegar helped them shed weight.

READ:"The banting diet is dangerous," warns dietitian

Let's look at the science behind all this.

The website World Health.net claims that apple cider vinegar is an excellent appetite suppressant.

'When as little as 2 tablespoons per day is combined with high-carbohydrate meals, vinegar can create a feeling of being full while consuming fewer calories. While the average amount of weight loss is less than 2 pounds per month, a reduction in belly fat and waist circumference is an added benefit,' states the website.

This is also supported by a report by Healthline, which states that 'studies suggest that vinegar can increase feelings of fullness and help you eat fewer calories, which may lead to weight loss'.

However, the same report states that 'simply adding or subtracting single foods or ingredients rarely has a noticeable effect on weight. Long-term weight loss is created by adopting helpful and supportive diet and lifestyle habits'.

Personal trainer, Owen Hambulo, the owner of Owen Fitness in Sandton, saysincorporating a healthy lifestyle and exercise is still the best and safest way to lose weight in the long run".

READ: Four misconceptions about weight loss debunked

Disclaimer: Health-related information provided in this article is not a substitute for medical advice and should not be used to diagnose or treat health problems. It is always advisable to consult with your doctor on any health-related issues.

Image courtesy of iStock/ @tylim

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Does apple cider vinegar really aid in weight loss? - Jacaranda FM

I was six years old the first time I used fat as an insult. Though I now know itisnt a bad word, I didnt at the time. It didnt take me long growing up in France to internalize the countrys rampantly fatphobic culture and weaponize it against a peer. By the time I was a teen, I had embarked on my first diet, kicking off a decade of disordered relationships with both my own body and the food on my plate.

Experiences like minearent unique to Francefar from itbut the very French insistence on thinness is so insidious that it has somehow gotten exporteden masse to other Western countriesincluding to the US and the UK, the two places Ive lived in since I left France at 17. In these places, womens lifestyle magazines have long purported to teach their readers how to be more like this fabled French woman, the one whoas writer Mireille Guiliano so unhelpfully put it in the title of her 2004 best-selling book,French Women Dont Get Fatis allegedly forever thin.

During my university and postgraduation years in Los Angeles and London, American and British women were increasingly being told they should be more like this impossibly, effortlessly thin person (yet another sneaky iteration of garden-varietydiet culture). As I absorbed these messages, the very same lessons Id learned about my own body growing up were reinforcednamely, that it wasnt good enough as it was.

Though I still have days when my own anti-fat bias rears its ugly head, I consider myselfrecovered from disordered eating now, close to 11 years after I first left my home country. Heres what Ive learned along the way about thewarped messages I was sold about womens bodies, including the ridiculous and deeply harmful idea that we should all try to look like this mythical French girl.

The idea that French women dont get fat is, if not entirely made up, at least woefully distorted. The truth is, lots of French women arent thin. Plenty of themas was the case for mealso develop problems with disordered eating as they try to live up to a harmful ideal. Cline Casse, the founder ofStopTCA, a French therapy platform that connects people dealing with disordered eating habits to nutritionists and therapists, is painfully aware of this reality, citing the example of a 10-year-old girl she worked with who asked her if it was normal to make herself vomit. Casse tells SELF that, due in part to a culture that promotes thinness ahead of health, shes seeing eating disorders begin increasingly early among middle and high school kids. This observation aligns with research showing a significant spike in eating disorder treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic: A 2022 study in theJournal of Clinical Medicine found that from March 2020 to November 2021, anorexia-related hospitalizations in France increased by 46% for girls aged 10 to 19 and by 7% for women aged 20 to 29.

This image of the thin French woman concerns a small portion of individuals, Casse says, who partially blames shows likeEmily in Parisfor perpetuating the myth of the monolithic French woman, when French women exist in all kinds of body types. She also points out that genetic and socioeconomic factors largely influence a persons body size, and that the archetypal French woman we picture is almost always wealthy and whitewhich, again, is hardly representative of all women in France.

When magazines and influencers (and books like Guilianos) attempt to teach us how to eat and live like a French girl, the message is typically that she doesnt have totryto be thin. She just is. The ideal of the effortlessly thin French girl presupposes that diet culture doesnt exist in France, while my and most of my French friends experiences completely invalidates that theory.

Casse confirms that diet culture is unfortunately still alive and well in France. When I listen [to conversations] in a public space, on the radio, or on French TV shows, I hear things like, Fasting helped me lose weight, you should try it, I mustnt gain weight, otherwise my partner wont be happy, or, I eat a lot of fruits and vegetables and avoid starchy food as much as possible to stay slim, she says.

Although Casse says thatbody acceptance is slowly gaining traction in France, she caveats that the culture ofanti-fatness prevails. Fat people are still called names and seen (and portrayed in media) as lazy or lacking willpower, while thin people are still praised and glamorized. The effortlessness we associate with the French Girl archetype isnt based in reality, yet were still being sold her perceived diet and lifestyle habits as the pinnacle of womanhood.

The French woman Guiliano writes about represents a specific type of personone who is Parisian, wealthy, and usually white. Her thinness is to an extent a byproduct of these factors (as, again, socioeconomic circumstances such asincome and education levels can influence a persons weight), coupled with genetics. Shes also typically assumed to be healthy simply because shes thin, even though we know that health and body size areby no means the same thing. Its also worth noting thatone in three French people smoked tobacco products as of 2020, a habit that is often associated with the French Girl archetype and one that is unfortunately frequently used as a weight-loss methoddespite the fact that smoking is decidedly bad for your health.

Nearly 20 years after Guillano publishedFrench Women Dont Get Fat, people are still conflating French womens perceived thinness with fitness and health. A new generation ofinfluencers andblogs are teaching readers to eat like French women in order to stay healthyeven though the advice they peddle is often geared at readers looking to lose weight rather than to take care of their health holistically. And of course, mainstream magazines andonline publications arestill at it too, though mercifully much less so than they might have been a few years ago. But what these content creators are ignoring is that you cant tell how healthy someone is from their body size.

Weight-science research shows that about 75% of our body weight ispredetermined by genetics; by contrast, some studies suggest that height is around80% genetically determined, London-based registered nutritionistLaura Thomas, PhD, tells SELF. We also know that the vast majority of dieting attempts end inweight regain, and a large portion of peoplewill go on to regain more weight than what they lost on the diet, adds Dr. Thomas. In effect, the scientific reality is that no matter how much you try to eat like a French girl, you are unlikely to drastically alter your body type over the long termnor would restricting your food in this way determine whether you are any healthier overall.

The deeply entrenched fatphobia in France, coupled with the false ideal of the effortlessly thin (and therefore healthy) French woman, destroyed my relationship with food and my body as I know it has for thousands of others. This essay is my call to media outlets, content creators, and anyone else who will listen to consider the consequences of selling such an exclusionary ideal to vulnerable girls and women, and to lay it to rest once and for all. Its long past time.

If youre struggling with an eating disorder, you can find support and resources from theNational Eating Disorder Association(NEDA). If you are in a crisis, you can text NEDA to 741741 to be connected with a trained volunteer atCrisis Text Linefor immediate support.

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The Myth That French Women Dont Get Fat Is Both Wrong and Harmful - Self

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Similar to Angela Deem, Winter Everett, and Tiffany Franco, Jen Boecher from 90 Day Fianc: The Other Way season 4 also had surgery for weight loss.

While Jen Boecher hasn't revealed her weight loss story on 90 Day Fianc: The Other Way yet, shes gotten surgery in the past before meeting Rishi Singh. The 46-year-old currently stars in The Other Way season 4 with Rishi, who is a professional model and fitness trainer. There isn't much revealed about what job Jen does for a living in the U.S. However, on the show, shes leaving her life behind and moving to Jaipur for good to get married to Rishi, who hasn't told his family anything about her.

90 Day Fianc's Jen Boecher is a nomad at heart, who was staying in Stilwell, Oklahoma on her parents farm when she was introduced on the show. She showed her life on the farm, leaving her family and friends to wonder how Rishi would adjust to Jens life if he eventually moved to the U.S. Jen spoke about how it wasnt love at first sight with Rishi, and took a whole month to say yes to him when they got engaged. She has lived in five or six major cities before meeting Rishi, and had a string of bad past relationships, with a track record of falling for the wrong guys. Jen said, I would choose guys who were good-looking and very charismatic. She couldn't find what she needed in a long-term partner with any of her exes. In the past, Jen was married to a guy she dated for only a few months, and was divorced less than two years later.

Related: 90 Day Fianc: All Clues Rishi & Jen Have Already Split (SPOILERS)

Theres more to Jens past than just her ex-husband and history of unworthy men. According to Starcasm, Jen was in India for her weight loss surgery in June 2018, when a Facebook post was discovered made by a laparoscopic surgeon revealing details of her medical procedure. The post shows Jen in a hospital gown standing next to her doctor. In the caption, the surgeon explains that he performed intragastric balloon procedure for weight loss on 19/06/2018 on Ms. Jeniffer Boecher Lee from the U.S. According to the doctor, Jen used to weigh 94 kgs, which is a little over 200 pounds with a BMI of 33.5. Jen seems to have a strong family history of Obesity.

In the post, the surgeon mentioned the Fortis JK Hospital where Jens surgery was performed, and it took just 20 minutes. Jen lost 4 kgs in just five days, and her doctor expected her to lose another 20 kgs in the coming year. According to Starcasm, the above-mentioned hospital is based in Udaipur, which is a different city than Jaipur where Rishi is from. However, both Jaipur and Udaipur are in the same state as Rajasthan in India. Jen claimed to have bumped into Rishi in a hotel where he came for a modeling job, so there is a chance Jen and Rishi crossed paths in 2018. If not, Jen may have visited her doctor for a follow-up in case she needed her balloon to be removed or replaced.

Jen spoke about having spent about 45 days with Rishi in person before she came back to the U.S. With the pandemic taking place soon after, Jen and Rishi were in a long-distance relationship for two years, and Jen rushed to India as soon as the borders opened. India opened for tourism in November 2021, and scheduled commercial international flights resumed in March 2022. Jen and Rishis journey on 90 Day Fianc: The Other Way season 4 could have been filmed in the past year, and it seems unlikely that itll focus on Jens weight loss journey. Unless Jen opens up about her fitness transformation to inspire her followers like other 90 Day Fianc stars, theres no other way anyone will know about her successful surgery.

More: 90 Day Fianc The Other Way: Why Jen & Rishi Are The New Jenny & Sumit

Source: Starcasm, Dr. Sapan Jain/Facebook

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90 Day Fianc: What To Know About Jen Boecher's Weight Loss ... - Screen Rant

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Long-term intensive endurance exercise training is associated to ... - Nature.com

Weight loss is an important health goal for Sabrazsia Gardner, so she began researching Wegovy, the anti-obesity drug that contains the same medication as Ozempic.

Gardner, 33, says she wanted to stop the snacking and binge eating that contributed to her obesity, and eat less. But diets didnt work and she didnt want to go the weight-loss surgery route.

After talking about her options with her doctor during her annual physical, she received a prescription for Wegovy. Now seven weeks into the treatment, Gardner says she has "very little appetite" and is losing weight.

I dont think about food the same I dont think about snacking and Im fuller longer, Gardner, an esthetician who lives in Chandler, Arizona, tells TODAY.com.

I dont even have hunger cravings. I eat because Im supposed to. You eat to live, not live to eat.

Gardner could once eat 10 chicken wings in a sitting, but barely ate three when she recently treated herself. She got a stomachache afterwards, one of the side effects shes experienced on the drug. Since starting Wegovy, Gardner has also had fatigue, diarrhea and really prominent nausea for which she takes another medication.

Gardner says she sometimes doesnt feel hungry all day and is no longer drawn to chips or chocolate foods she used to crave and snack on. Shes lost about 10 pounds so far.

Wegovy contains semaglutide, the same medication found in Ozempic, the Type 2 diabetes treatment that comes with a celebrated side effect: weight loss.

Wegovy is approved for weight loss by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, while Ozempic is not, though many people are using it off-label for that purpose. Each medication is self-injected by patients once a week.

The only difference between the two drugs is the design of the injector pen and the doses, says Dr. Louis Aronne, an obesity medicine physician and director of the Comprehensive Weight Control Center at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian.

Wegovy comes in five different dose strengths, while Ozempic has four.

The maximum dose is 2 milligrams for Ozempic and 2.4 milligrams for Wegovy, according to Novo Nordisk, the pharmaceutical giant that makes both drugs. The company says they are not interchangeable.

Semaglutide is a synthetic version of a hormone known as GLP-1, which the body releases into the intestine when people eat food, says Aronne, who is a scientific adviser for Novo Nordisk.

When the medication hits GLP-1 receptors in different parts of the brain, that triggers a reaction, stimulating nerves that mimic the effect of eating food people have reduced appetite, and when they do eat, they feel full sooner, he notes.

That hormone gets absorbed into the bloodstream, goes to the brain and tells the brain youve eaten food. So people basically feel like theyve already eaten when they take it, Aronne tells TODAY.com.

Its kind of like if I gave you Thanksgiving dinner and then I asked you to eat another dinner. Youll say, I cant possibly eat it. I just ate a whole dinner.

Another way the medication works is that it slows down stomach emptying, which slows down the absorption of calories and may contribute to the feeling of fullness, Aronne says.

People who took Wegovy for 16 months in the largest placebo-controlled trial lost an average of 12% of their body weight compared to those who received a placebo, according to the FDA.

A typical anecdote Aronne hears from a patient is: I went to the same restaurant I always go to, I ordered the same dinner I always order, but when I ate half of it, I just couldnt continue. I felt so full, so bloated that I could not eat anymore.

People with binge eating problems or who obsessively think about food tell him, I have so much time in the day now because Im not thinking about my next meal all the time.

Some people also lose cravings. Looking at a bag of Doritos was kind of like looking at a pair of socks, Shea Murray, who used Ozempic, previously told TODAY.

People have to keep taking semaglutide for the drug to keep working otherwise, they will regain two-thirds of their prior weight loss, studies have shown. Its not a short-term cosmetic fix for someone who wants to lose 10 pounds to look good in a swimsuit, but a long-term treatment for people who have health problems related to obesity, doctors say.

The most common side effects of Ozempic and Wegovy include nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, stomach pain and constipation, according to Novo Nordisk.

Some patients told NBC News the side effects were so severe they stopped taking the drugs or questioned whether they could stay on them long-term.

In clinical trials, almost 7% of patients treated with Wegovy permanently stopped taking it because of adverse reactions, or more than twice the number of people who received a placebo, Novo Nordisk reported.

The nausea, which was the most common side effect that led patients to stop treatment, may be caused by the slowing down of the emptying of the stomach or by acid reflux, Aronne says. People respond in different ways to the medication, so they must start with the lowest dose and work their way up to higher doses slowly, he adds.

Possible serious side effects of Ozempic and Wegovy include pancreatitis, gallbladder problems and kidney problems, among other issues, according to the manufacturer.

Both drugs also carry the warning that semaglutide causes thyroid C-cell tumors in rodents, though its unknown whether that can happen in humans.

Dr. Robert Lustig, a neuroendocrinologist and professor emeritus of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco, previously told TODAY.com he has major, major concerns about people potentially taking Wegovy for years or for life. Hes not against the drug, but calls it a Band-Aid thats not fixing the root of the problem of obesity.

Dr. Zhaoping Li, professor of medicine and chief of the division of clinical nutrition at the University of California, Los Angeles, says more long-term data is needed about Wegovy.

But other doctors previously told TODAY.com they were comfortable prescribing it for the long-term. Aronne calls this the golden age of treating obesity as more medications that work and are safe become available, he says.

Sabrazsia Gardner, the woman who started taking Wegovy in January, says shed like to stay on it for as long as she can and hopes to lose 120 pounds.

The nausea I can live with. Its annoying, but its OK. If its making me healthier, I think Ill be OK, she says.

A. Pawlowski is a TODAY health reporter focusing on health news and features. Previously, she was a writer, producer and editor at CNN.

Read more:
How Do Ozempic and Wegovy Lead To Weight Loss? - TODAY

Rachel E. Buehner, Ph.D. and Alex Pruitt, Psy.D.| Opinion Contributors

At this time of year resolutions are tested and new fitness activities and nutrition behaviors are highlighted on social media. Many find themselves exhibiting unusual focus on what they eat and how they move. When faced with a goal like weight loss or changing ones fitness level, it can be easy to fall into the trap of strict, extreme, even painful behaviors that put mental and physical health at risk. Additionally, 80% of those engaged in excessive exercise and rigid approaches to nutrition will eventually gain back any weight lost. Consider former contestants from The Biggest Loser who eventually regained their lost weight. Extreme fads dont tend to work in the long run and can lead to worse health in the end.

More:'It's not a teenage girl disease': Eating disorders are rampant in Louisville

It can look different for each person but what can signal possible concerns for an eating disorder include:

Fixating on your appearance, perceived flaws, body weight or BMI, or on social media messages about fitness and nutrition can each also signal potentially disordered patterns. If you find that your moods or sense of worth are tied to the scale or minutes exercised, it may be time to consider addressing the emotional needs that may be driving disordered behaviors and thought patterns. Accessing mental health treatment when eating disorders develop is vital, as the mortality rate for anorexia is 20%, making it the second leading cause of death from a psychiatric disorder (behind opioid addiction). Early intervention is crucial.

More:Life expectancy for Kentuckians just dropped. Here's why and what to know

When undertaking a new eating or fitness program and seeking long-term success, a more holistic approach to getting results is through healthy behaviors (a robust diet of all kinds of food and joyful movement of body) and a self-acceptance mindset instead of a weight loss goal.

Other ways to achieve this goal are to examine ones day-to-day emotional needs, underlying belief systems about their own worth and attitudes about food (not deserving of food or needing to burn it off) and exercise as punishment. Mindfulness meditation encourages one to attend to their emotional state and to try and focus on the current moment, and is associated with a reduction in binge eating and emotional eating. Cognitive behavior therapy can also help identify and address the underlying beliefs about ourselves and our worth that can sometimes hinder our ability to find and maintain success losing weight and achieving a higher level of fitness.

Weight loss and fitness are not a panacea for low self-esteem. If you notice that liking yourself or treating your body well depends on what youve eaten or how youve exercised, it may be time to consider seeking out psychotherapy. Addressing underlying beliefs that may be an obstacle to your health can improve long-term outcomes on the scale and beyond. Nurturing your health is an inside job.

The Kentucky Eating Disorders Council (Phone: (502) 564-4456) offers guidance on accessing providers who specialize in the treatment of eating disorders. The Kentucky Psychological Association offers a Roadmap to Behavioral Health to facilitate access to quality mental health care.

Rachel E. Buehner, Ph.D. is the former President of the Kentucky Psychological Association. She is a licensed psychologist practicing in Louisville.Alex Pruitt, Psy.D. is a passionate advocate for body positivity and self acceptance by working with individuals with eating disorders. She is the Associate Director of Louisville Center for Eating Disorders. She currently serves on the Kentucky Eating Disorder Council and as Clinical Representative for the KentuckyPsychological Association.

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Why you should prioritize mental health on your fitness and weight ... - Courier Journal

AMA Update covers a range of health care topics affecting the lives of physicians, residents, medical students and patients. From private practice and health system leaders to scientists and public health officials, hear from the experts inmedicineon COVID-19, medical education, advocacy issues, burnout, vaccines and more.

Featured topic and speakers

Fatima Cody Stanford, MD, MPH, MPA, MBA, an obesity medicine physician at Mass General Hospital and associate professor at Harvard Medical School in Boston, talks about redefining obesity as a brain disease rather than a consequence of poor health choices. American Medical Association Chief Experience Officer Todd Unger hosts.

Unger: Hello and welcome to the AMA Update video and podcast. Today we're talking about redefining obesity as a brain disease rather than a consequence of poor health choices. I'm joined today by Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford, an obesity medicine physician at Mass General Hospital and associate professor at Harvard Medical School in Boston, who is leading this charge. I'm Todd Unger, AMA'S Chief Experience Officer in Chicago.

Dr. Stanford, thanks so much for being here today.

Dr. Stanford: Thanks so much for having me, Todd. It's a delight to be with you.

Unger: Well, I've seen you all over the news in the past few weeks. I appreciate you taking the time to talk with us today. Well Dr. Stanford, let's jump right in here. Most of us have been given this message that if we eat right and we exercise and of course, have a decent amount of willpower, that we're going to be able to achieve and maintain a healthy weight. But your research has shown that the reason that some people can't lose weight may have more to do with brain chemistry than anything else. Let's talk about that.

Dr. Stanford: I think this is an extremely important question, Todd. I'm so glad that you asked this. And let me tell you, I was part of that camp that believed that it was just about how much exercise you did, how you ate. And I would even say this to my patients in the past without me understanding how complex the brain is in regulating our weight.

And I'm just going to talk about this in terms of two pathways. There's a pathway of our brain called the POMC pathway that tells us to eat less and store less. For people that signal really great down this pathway, they tend to be very lean, not struggle with their weight in the same way that people that have excess weight do, and they travel down an alternate pathway. It's called the AgRP or the agouti-related peptide pathway, and that pathway tells us to eat more and store more.

Now when we talk about the brain, we have to recognize that the brain is interacting with our environment. So some people are very sensitive to the environment. So one person might walk down the street, pass a pizza place, and they feel like just walking past that pizza place, they gained five pounds, right? That's a bit of an exaggeration and not actually the case, but what they are honing in on is that their body is more sensitive to the environment in which they exist than maybe another individual, someone that signals well down that POMC pathway. And so that's part of the complexity of this disease that we call obesity.

Unger: Now it's interesting, I want to talk about this concept of the set point, which I pay a lot of attention on this and I always think about the set point as being something about your body that it does. But in your words, it's really about the brain telling us how much fat to store. Can people develop a new set point if they gain or lose weight, and like all those millions of people who gained weight during COVID, did they develop a new set point?

Dr. Stanford: You know, absolutely. The set point can be changed. And I actually want to look at itI know set point sounds better, but it's more of a set range. And so let's think about ourselves. Just think about yourself, whoever you are, and you might notice that you tend to stay within a five to ten pound range of what your baseline is.

Now there are times when you might go up. Maybe during the holiday season, you're like, ooh, I'm a little bit outside of that range. And your body kind of recalibrates and you get back into that zone of what the body sees as comfortable. Even if you carry excess weight, let's say that your baseline is 250 pounds and you get up to about 260, and your body is like nope, I'm pushing it down back to 250. So you may not have had to do anything really significant except to shift back into whatever your norm is. And so this is the idea of set point.

Now notice, I didn't say anything about what the person did. A lot of the body's recalibrating them back to a certain weight, and so when we talk about people that have really a lot of excess weight, let's say those patients that come into me that weigh 500 poundsmost of us, no matter how hard we tried couldn't push ourselves up to 500 pounds. Our body would do something. And maybe we'd get to 300, but not 500. For most of us, our bodies will push us back into a range like, yeah, you may have gained 100 pounds, I can't make you gain 300 pounds. It's just a certainit's like the body is tightly defining itself to where it wants to be.

So what happens often, particularly with lifestyle interventions, let's say you go on a diet, which I'm not a fan of going on a diet, but let's just say you do that. You notice you lose weight, you're feeling really great, but then as you get down to this lower what you feel is a different set point, your body is resisting it. And you start noticing weight gain. And you're like, well, wait a minute, but I'm doing all the right things.

What happens is your resting metabolic rate drops dramatically. And when it drops dramatically, the body can't defend itself down there. The brain is like, this isn't where we're supposed to be anyway. And so your body typically creeps back up to where it was before, much to your dismay, not because you did something wrong, but because it deviated from where the brain felt it should be. And so that's the concept of set point or as we're redefining it, set range.

Unger: So just hearing you, it just brings all the challenges that we hear about in terms of weight loss. So I guess the question is, how do we treat obesity? I know a lot of the news these past few weeks and months is focused on how some physicians are approaching that with pharmaceuticals. Let's talk a little bit about what are these drugs, and what do they do in the brain to help patients who have obesity?

Dr. Stanford: So different ways to treat obesityI know the media has kind of made it seem like it's one-sided or one thing, but there are different things that different people need. We have to recognize that we're heterogeneous. None of us are exactly alike. The two of us sitting here, there may be some things that are similar, we're both human. But there may be other things that are very, very different that make our bodies respond differently to different things.

So we have this bucket lifestyle modification, things that we can do from a lifestyle perspective. And then let's go over to this bucket of medications or anti-obesity medications. And all of the medications that are available for use, either short-term or long-term, approved by the FDA, actually are often working on the brain.

The drug class that we hear a lot about is called the GLP-1s, or the glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists. Say that five times fast. And they actually do exactly what we talked about a little bit earlier. Let's talk about the brain and why they are so, on average, effective for many people. Notice I didn't say everybody, and for many means that's not everyone, but for many people, they're effective because they do two key things in the brain. They upregulate that pathway, that POMC pathway that tells us to eat less and store less, and it downregulates that pathway of the brain that tells us to eat more and store more.

So when people take these medications, they'll notice, wait a minute. This doesn't feel like I'm having to work because we've changed how the brain sees weight. And that's how that mechanism works.

Now, there are other drugs that are out there that are outside of that class like phentermine, which has been around since 1959. That drug inhibits something called norepinephrine reuptake within the brain. Or topiramate, which stimulates something called GABA, or gamma-aminobutyric acid in the brain. So notice, we keep getting back to the brain. All of these things are working on different parts of the brain to change how the brain sees weight.

Unger: Now, let's talk a little bit more because I think what's been in the press a lot lately are people that are getting access to drugs like this to lose weight, fit in a dress, whatever you want to say, kind of celebrity-type drugs. The bottom line is they're expensive, and a lot of them are not covered by insurance, and they can become very hard to come by now because so many people are using them, let's just say, for weight loss. How do we make sure that the people who really need drugs like this can get them?

Dr. Stanford: This is a really complicated question, and the reason why it's so complicated is because we do have this issue with access and insurance coverage and the proper prescribing of these medications, right? These are medications that are used to treat two primary conditions, obesity and persons that have a history of type 2 diabetes. There is also some indication for people that have type 1 diabetes, although not as well defined.

So if we know that these are the patient populations that we're targeting, then obviously, there should be preferential use of these medications within those cohorts. We have to recognize that for obesity, these medications aren't often well covered by insurers, whether that's private insurers, public insurers. However, when patients do have type 2 diabetes, they often are covered.

There's the disparity between which disease process is more important, although I will acknowledge that when we're looking at type 2 diabetes, we know that 80% of patients with type 2 diabetes also have obesity. So we have to recognize that there's much of an overlap in these disease processes.

For the Hollywood community and the group that's going to just get on these just to look cute in a dress or look great for a reunion or a wedding, I would really push back on those individuals. There's been a major shortage of these medications for both type 2 diabetes and obesity that's persisted throughout 2022, for example. And as we go into 2023, we're seeing slight improvement in access, but I can tell you that from day-to-day, one of my biggest pain points with my patients is my patients not being able to get the medication that they need, they deserve, and that is used to treat their disease.

So I think equity is important. So we need to make sure that the people that need and deserve these medications, the people that actually have indication for the use of these medications are getting them. But that is going to take a bigger community. It's going to take insurers, private insurers, public insurers really making sure that the people that deserve and need access actually get them and not just the people that have the wherewithal, the means by which to acquire these medications.

Unger: Dr. Stanford, obviously drugs are not the only option, especially if a person can't afford a prescription or if it interferes with other medications or they just don't want to take a pharmaceutical approach. You've outlined a lot of the challenges here that are reality. What are the non-pharmaceutical forms of treatment that you recommend?

Dr. Stanford: Absolutely. This is a really great question, and I think it's important for us to recognize that medications, pharmacotherapy for obesity are not the only treatment option. We do start with obviously looking at lifestyle considerations. I mean, this is always our first go-to, looking at things like diet quality, where we have lean protein, whole grains, fruits and vegetables, and optimizing that to fit the individual person, recognizing that different people require different macronutrients than others.

Looking at physical activity, one of my favorite pastimes, and recognizing that we need at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity per week. But for some of us, we may get even more than that. We may see, for me, I'm a big high-intensity interval training person. But think about finding the right workout for the individual. A lot of times, particularly as physicians, we impose on individuals what we think they should do, as opposed to listening to them about what things they enjoy doing so that they can do them long-term.

It's important to recognize that sleep quality and duration plays a large role. A lot of people have disordered or disregulated sleep or changes in their circadian rhythm. And by that, maybe they're night shift workers, and they notice that as a night shift worker, they have gained weight. And so sometimes it's shifting into a normal pattern, being awake when it's bright outside, and asleep when it's dark outside that we see weight shifts.

Medications that we as doctors and other health care providers prescribe can lead to major weight shifts. Medications like lithium, Depakote, Tegretol, Celexa, Cymbalta, Effexor, Paxil, Prozac, Ambien, trazodone, Lunesta, gabapentin, glyburide, glipizide, glimepiride, long-term insulin, long-term prednisone, just to name a few medications that can lead to weight disregulation. Many of those medications acting on the brain, remembering that the brain is the primary regulator in where our bodies see weight. So those are important.

It's also important not to discount the role of metabolic and bariatric surgery for those with very severe obesity. We find that that implementation and/or intervention has the highest impact on changing weight status for individuals across the age and life course that struggle with severe obesity and obesity-related disease. And so there's different strategies.

Now, for many of my patients Todd, I will tell you that they have a combination of all of the things we just mentioned. Maybe they had surgery, maybe they are on medications, maybe they have lifestyle interventions, and maybe they may have been resistant to considering any of those things at the outset, and then over time, they recognize their body's resistance to change with any one intervention.

Unger: And that's quite a list of different interactions that you laid out in that list of drugs. You've obviously had practice in saying that. Something we talked about earlier, too, you mentioned the overlap between obesity and diabetes, in that case. Let's talk a little bit about what we're facing here. I mean, there's obviously a public health problem with both hypertension and pre-diabetes that's now exceeding 90 million people in the U.S.

And that's why, at the AMA, we've been working with clinical teams and health systems to address these two conditions. What are your thoughts on how physicians can help their patients with these conditions and obesity, and if obesity is a brain disease, how do lifestyle-change programs fit into that comprehensive total treatment plan?

Dr. Stanford: This is a great question, and I think one of the key things I want to point out, Todd, is the overlay between all of these conditions. We have over 110 million adults with obesity in this country as of today. You talked about 90 million with pre-diabetes, hypertension, et cetera. But what we do know is that there's a lot of overlay and a lot of interaction between each of these individual entities, these different disease processes.

And so we have to recognize that, first of all, we have two different camps of individualsthose that were trying to prevent developing more significant disease, and then those that already have these diseases that now intervention is key. And so we have to recognize that we want to prevent those that are in the pre-obesity range, the pre-diabetes range from developing more significant disease, but we can't discount the fact that we have these huge numbers of individuals that already have these conditions. And as physicians we have to be at the forefront of really setting the charge and treating these patients with dignity, respect, valuing them and where they are today, and making sure that they have the best and healthiest life going forward. So I think that's really key for us to recognize.

We can't assume that one thing that works for one person will work for everyone. We have to recognize, going back to that heterogeneity of who we are, different things, even within the same family, may work differently. And it's OK. It's just about finding the right treatment for the right person at the right time to get them to the healthiest person they can possibly be.

Unger: And we're just been talking really primarily about adults, but we know that obesity is not just an adult problem. In fact, again, lots in the news recently about thisit's affecting one in five children, and I'm sure a lot of parents out there have questions about how to help their children live a healthy life. What should pediatricians be telling parents about how to manage their children's weight, and also how to talk to their kids about it?

Dr. Stanford: As a pediatrician also, I'm going to put on my pediatrician hat, and I guess you guys can see the pediatrician hat now is on. I spend a lot of time talking with parents and families. And what I have found, particularly when you're dealing with pediatric patients with obesity, is to take this from a family approach. This is not just focused on the child and what they can do and what they've done wrong or what they could potentially do better. It's what can the family do better.

And when we focus on the family as a whole unit, I can tell you that we have much better outcomes, and the data supports this. So I think that's first and foremost. Can we work on those things that we talked about in the lifestyle realm? Absolutely. But the new pediatric guidelines do speak to the need to address and treat obesity more aggressively and sooner.

This is something that I've done in my practice for over 15 years, and I'm happy to see the AAP recognizing that if I have a 12-year-old come in, and he's four standard deviations above what's considered a healthy weight, that me telling him just to drink skim milk is likely not going to have a huge intervention or shift him into a healthier weight range. And so I think using the treatment modalities that are based on the evidence, and that's what we're using is the evidence to inform our treatments to recognize that for some, lifestyle measures will be enough, and that's great. But for those that need more aggressive therapiesmedications, surgical intervention, a combination thereofthat we should be supportive and embrace the idea that we can treat these people early.

And why is that important? Because if you struggle with disease, whether it be obesity or hypertension or type 2 diabetes, as a child and start very early, you can imagine it's much worse as they cross the threshold over into adulthood. If you're getting these diseases at the age of 40 compared to the age of 12, what do you think your life expectancy is? What do you think the quality of life will be for those individuals? And these are really important conversations to have.

Todd, I recently had a 12-year-old that I've been taking care of for the last two years have a really important conversation with her parents, who I also take care of. And they said to her, well, what do you think about the work that you're doing with your weight doctor? And she was like, who are you talking about? And they were oh, your weight doctor. And she was like, I don't go to a weight doctor. And they were like, well, what about Dr. Stanford? She was like, oh, that's what she does? And I think that's really important because she had no idea

Unger: Wow.

Dr. Stanford: that she's been seeing for two years, and that I am an obesity medicine physician. Why? Because while I do focus on weight and weight regulation, I do that at the very beginning of the visit, and then I just talk about her, her as part of that family unit. What can we do to make her life better? So much so that for two years that I've been treating her she had no idea that I was an obesity medicine physician.

And how do you do that? Well, it's by not hyper-focusing on the number on the scale, the number on the growth chart. Yes, it's there. We see it at the beginning of the visit, then let's focus on how to optimize her, him, they, them, theirs, whoever. I think this is really important. And I take significant pride in knowing that she had no idea what I do for a living and didn't feel like this was a combative visit, a visit that she has to be embarrassed of when she looks back at her 12-year-old self in 20, 30, 40 years.

Unger: That's a great segue into the next question I want to ask you because obviously, there's a lot of skill and experience that goes into the background of that story. And despite the prevalence of obesity, physicians aren't going to have that same understanding as you do, and they're not going to have that same ability to understand how to speak to a patient like that. And I think the estimates are pretty high percentage of doctors do have some bias toward individuals who are overweight or have obesity. So this is a real issue.

I want to talk a little bit more about that. And you also have got insurance companies that won't cover obesity drugs like they would medications for heart disease and hypertension, and that implies that they don't consider obesity a disease, either. So in the face of this, a lot of education that's needed. There's bias. There's a lot working against patients here. How do you see, coming out of your research and your work, physicians needing to have conversations like the one you just had?

Dr. Stanford: I think the key tenetand this is something we learn, regardless of our religious background, et cetera, is to treat people how we want to be treated. So when you're going into that office visit as a physician, as another health care provider, what would you want if you were in the receiving end of that conversation said to you that would make you feel whole?

If you aren't doing that as a physician, then I want you to reconsider what you're doing. What would you want to be said to you at that moment? So that you can look back and be like, that was a really great interaction I had with that physician. That made me feel empowered, that I am not necessarily the problem, and that there's part of my biology that's working with this problem.

It's unfortunately something that we don't really learn in our medical training, but it's a simple tenet that you can use by just thinking about if you were on the receiving end, what would you want to hear? What would make you feel whole, valued, and somewhat feel like this is not the end of the road? And so that's really what I think about when I'm working with my patients. What would I want to be receiving?

And if I say anything or think about anything that doesn't quite fit that mold, then I need to change my thought process. And I can tell you that I didn't start there when I started my career. I would say, people are like, oh, I want to be happy and healthy, and I want to weigh this. And I'd be like, oh, well, I do P90X. I do Insanity. I do all of these things, and a focus on me, me, me and what I did, not recognizing that I also wasn't coming from a place of having struggle with obesity.

So I was doing these things that were maintaining me, but I wasn't coming from a place of having 100 pounds in excess or 200 pounds in excess, or whatever. I wasn't coming from that place. And so when I talked about what I did, so that my patients could say, oh well, I did this, I wasn't recognizing what their struggle was. I wasn't empathizing. I wasn't living in their shoes. And now, having taken care of thousands, tens of thousands of patients with obesity, I feel, I hear, and I try to live what it is that they live, and then think about what I can do better.

And each day, I work to improve. I don't know if that conversation that I had with that 12-year-old, such that she has no idea what I did, if you go back to me in residency, is that the same conversation that people that I took care of then thought? Because I didn't know about this disease. I was telling those kids, if you can justI know you're working out for an hour a day, maybe an hour and 15 minutes, you know? Yes, and maybe, yes, you can just drink more water and these types of things, not recognizing that their degree of obesity was so severe that those interventions would likely not yield any measurable outcome for them.

Unger: Well, last question for you. You were recently appointed to the U.S. Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee. How do you hope an appointment like this helps you further your work?

Dr. Stanford: Absolutely. Well, first of all, I'll acknowledge that of the 20 of us that are appointees, only three of us are physicians, and I think I may be one of the only two that are actually practicing medicine. And so I think this brings a different perspective to what the work is. There's one thing to do this in science, and there's one thing to actually care for patients.

And one of the things that I have seen as a person that's now in the middle of my 40s is that sometimes the dietary guidelines can be confusing for those with health literacy issues, with those from diverse backgrounds where some of the recommendations may not quite fit what their native culture is. These can feel a bit isolating. And so I'm hoping that my appointment brings that patient element. That element of looking at diverse populations across the age range.

This time I was nominated by the National Council on Aging, but previously, I have been nominated for this, was not selected by the American Academy of Pediatrics, they nominated me previously. So I think that speaks to being able to talk about the pediatric side, talk about the aging population, and then bring this work into particularly those that have struggled with this disease of obesity and who have been told to do these things that are doing these things that are still struggling with the disease, not assuming that they aren't doing the right things, but maybe we can do things to help them be their best self.

And so that's what I'm hoping my appointment brings to the committee as we do our work.

Unger: Are we going to see changes to the food pyramid?

Dr. Stanford: I don't know because there's 20 of us. I can't speak to what's going to happen. I will tell you that we have an upcoming meeting with just in the next week with the committee, and it'll be interesting because our first meeting as a group. We'll have two years to work on the 2025 guidelines, and it will be a lot of work. And I recognize that we come from different perspectives, different backgrounds. I mean, I'm hoping that we're able to coalesce these backgrounds and understandings of what we see and things that can improve to make the best possible recommendations to the U.S. people.

Unger: Just throughout this conversation, it just strikes me over and over again how much there is to learn about the situation that we face ourselves and the challenges that we didn't anticipate. It's just so important to do what you're recommending, which is to reframe the discussion and really think differently about this.

So thank you so much, Dr. Stanford, for joining us here today and for all the work that you're doing on this important topic. We're going to be back soon with another AMA Update. You can find all our videos and podcasts at ama-assn.org/podcasts. Thanks for joining us today. Please take care.

Disclaimer: The viewpoints expressed in this video are those of the participants and/or do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the AMA.

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Obesity, weight loss treatments, set point theory & more with Fatima ... - American Medical Association

It's 2023, and we're in the midst of a weight loss 'revolution'.

While the body positivity movement has exploded over the years, on the flip-side, weight loss medication has swiftly become more in demand than ever before.

The force behind the shift? The use of a drug called 'semaglutide'.

It's what doctors are calling the 'miracle cure' for obesity. The magic bullet. The 'medical breakthrough'.

Studiesnow tell us that things like calorie restriction and dieting do not work for long-term weight loss. In fact, 95 per cent of individuals end up regaining the weight, if not more. We know this for a fact.

With this in mind, the possibility of a weight loss drug that experts say is actually effective almost doesmake it seem like a 'magic pill'.

Designed for people suffering from diabetes, it's now being used off-label to restrict hunger and lose weight.

But is it a one time 'cure', and what are the long-term effects? All questions that need answering - but we've only just begun to scratch the surface.

Dubbed 'Botox for weight loss', celebrities, influencers, models and those in Hollywood's elite social circles have made the popularity of the drug - popularised under the brand name Ozempic - go mainstream.

As stated by The Guardian, it's 'Hollywood's worst-kept secret'.

Chelsea Handler was on it. Elon Musk as well. Khloe Kardashian denies taking it. So too does Kyle Richards from TheReal Housewives of Beverly Hills.

To meet overwhelming demand, the weekly injectable is now slowly multiplying under different manufacturers, with pharmaceutical companies scrambling to become part of the race (*insert dollar signs here*).

In the US, brands like Wegovy, Mounjaro and Reybelsus have cropped up among others.

And these new drugs are only the beginning. We're currently sitting on the cusp of a new wave of medication for weight management.

In Australia, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has recently approved Wegovy for weight loss for those with a body mass index (BMI) over 30. Though it's not yet available.

Globally, there's been a shortage of the drug for the past year - meaning people with diabetes have struggled to access it. This is simply because the demand exceeded the capacity to produce it, by quite a large margin, making the supply constrained.

However, with a massive injection in the drug's manufacturing, experts are saying the supply crunch will ease very soon.

It's predicted that not only will the drug become more widely available, but soon, we're also going to have a variety of choices for weight loss medication.

In fact, within the next five years, experts say we'll see a slew of new drugs aiming to combat unwanted weight gain.

So, what will this look like?

Doctors in Australia, desperate to treat what is widely seen as an obesity crisis (obesity currently affects two out of three adults), are widely on board with the drug.

As Dr Brad Mackay told podcast host Claire Murphy on The Quicky, the medical profession hasbeen promised a miracle weight loss drug for decades.

Listen: Is Ozempic Really A Weight Loss Wonder Drug? Post continues below.

Dr Mackay said: "I've been waiting for medication like this to come along my whole career, even at university."

"My university lecturers promised that just around the corner, we would have amazing weight loss drugs - and we'd be able to make a big dent in helping the obesity crisis that was starting around the world many, many years ago."

Of course, weight management pills, programs and treatments have cropped up throughout the decades, some gaining massive popularity - but according to Dr Mackay, semaglutide is unlike any weight loss medication we've seen in the past. The evolution of this medication has been a game-changer.

The reason is that up until now, medications that suppress appetites have been limited, and have historically had very negative side effects.

In the late '90s, Fen Phen diet pills were THE answer to weight loss. Until they werelinked to heart damage. Then there was DMAA in the early 2000s - which was removed from the market due to fatal health risks.

"We've had medication that works as stimulants - it speeds up your metabolism, but also increases your blood pressure and gives people anxiety. So, it's not a great drug for a lot of people. There have been other medications that stop you from absorbing fat in your gut - meaning you just end up with fatty diarrhea, which isn't the best for anyone."

"We've had other medication that's been taken off the market because it was causing heart attacks to occur. This class of medication that we're using for diabetes doesn't seem to be causing those other problems. There's a high safety profile on it - they need to go through rigorous studies to make sure that they're not causing any adverse effects."

However, is there then good reason to believe that other side effects will surface in years to come?

We already know that the main side effects are things like nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. We also know that once you stop injecting the medication,it stops working.

Meaning? It's something ofan indefinite prescription.

So then, as we don't really know what the effects are until long-term users grow, is it possible there's a whole list of other complications?

Mamamia spoke to dietician, TV nutritionist and author of Your Weight Is Not The Problem, Lyndi Cohen, who thinks we are severely underestimating the long-term side effects of these drugs.

She said, "There is research to say that these drugs can increase tumour growth, that they can result in acute kidney failure - this is a huge deal."

"We have this whole trend in wellness culture of compromising one part of you so that you can fit in more aesthetically. A lot of the buzz surrounding these drugs is around people who are trying to lose the last few kilos. I feel like there's such potential for misuse, where people who don't need to fix their body are going to be taking long-term lifelong drugs, with huge financial and physical costs, simply to achieve this ideal."

As it becomes more widely used, will we see underlying issues we couldn't see before? Not just physically, but mentally and socially, too?

What are we willing to sacrifice as a culture to get the number we want to see on a scale?

While some people are calling this a 'miracle drug', others, like Cohen, are questioning the medication for weight loss issues.

As Cohen tells Mamamia, for people who suffer from eating disorders and disordered eating behaviours, these kinds of 'quick fixes' don't help to heal a person's relationship with food.

"I find it really problematic. And I'm worried about early future generations coming through with this kind of culture."

"Of course, there are going to be use cases where someone has a clinical need to use a drug like this. However, I feel like for years we've been trying to treat eating disorders with a kind of physical BandAid," she shares.

"It's a bit like giving someone gastric banding, but not treating the underlying cause of the issue, which is a deeply unhealthy relationship with food, compounded by years and years of dieting."

"Instead, we go and give them a physical solution without fixing the fundamental psychology that's driving them to eat compulsively and feel out of control around food."

"For me, it feels a bit like we're trying to place a BandAid on a headache. There's a mismatch between the way we're trying to treat the problem. Like gastric banding - you have someone who still has the exact same disordered relationship with food, but now it's even trickier for them to eat. I query whether we are making this problem worse than it already is."

While the drug has been approved for patients with a body mass index above 30, as Dr Crowley told Claire Murphy on The Quicky, "doctors can prescribe what we call off-label, which is outside the TGA approval - if they believe it's in the patient's best interest."

Now, this is where it gets murky. Because the question that arises is, who should be allowed to use it?

"Is the decision to prescribe this drug in the patient's best interest? I think we know that weight loss is beneficial for people who are obese and overweight," said Dr Cowley.

"Where the line comes - we don't know whether weight loss from a BMI of 25 is beneficial. I think the question is, are doctors prescribing it for people who are not overweight? And I would hope not."

While medical professionals in Australia are saying there isn't a lot of evidence of it being used off-label in Australia at the moment - in America, it certainly is.

In a recent Instagram post, actress and presenter Jameela Jamil very explicitly blames this drug for the return of 'heroin chic'.

She said that it's now become a mainstream craze in Hollywood, widely being used by influencers and celebrities to whittle themselves down.

She writes: "Slim women in my industry are buying it off prescription for 1k, to 1.5k and using it to get super skinny to conform to FASHION DESIGNERS WHO JUST WON'T MAKE THE SAMPLES WE HAVE TO WEAR FOR WORK BIGGER. The samples are getting smaller post pandemic, and coincidentally "heroin chic" is "back in"."

However, the predicament seems to be this: Should the influencer or celebrity, or someone who is abusing the drug, be thrown in the same basket as the person who has been struggling with their weight for their entire life?

As Dr Mackay shared onThe Quicky: "In my experience, the people who have been inquiring in Australia are morbidly obese. They are really struggling with their weight. And they know that the medication can reduce their weight and it can be life-saving in its own way."

"So if you're able to reduce your weight, you're able to exercise a lot better, you're able to decrease your cholesterol, you're able to decrease your blood pressure - these are all longer-term gains."

"I'm a little bit empathic for people who are using it for weight loss. Because people are often desperate, they've tried every diet under the sun, and it hasn't worked. We know that metabolism is just self-sabotage. Your body wants to keep you fat. Often people will need to go on medications to help them get to a much safer weight for their future."

Undoubtedly, one of the major differences between what we're seeing today compared to ten years ago has a lot to do with the transparency we now see on social media.

For example, years ago, you didn't hear or see celebrities talking openly about their gastric band surgery. Orsharing what procedures they have on their face or bodies. It was just not the done thing.

Fast forward to 2023, and you'll find celebrities and influencers alike sharing everything from what they eat in a day to the different cosmetic treatments they've undergone.

But are we happier that some influencers and celebrities are now opening up and discussing the use of weight loss drugs?

Does transparency around weight loss actually make us feel better?

Well, it's a double-edged sword.

On the one hand, we can find comfort in knowing that celebrities aren't 'perfect' - that they too can battle with their appearance and weight.

"They're just like us!"

However, on the other hand, it still makes us feel like we have to be a certain way. To fit in with another standard or ideal.

Further to this, the normalisation and accessibility of the drugparticularly once it becomes more widely availableadds an extra layer of pressure. Will it just become the 'done thing'?

Because eventually, these drugs will be everywhere.

As Mia Freedman asked in a recent episode of MamamiaOut Loud, how do we feel about the fact that someone we know might want to 'just lose five kilos'? Will it eventually become like the actualBotox of weight loss?

Similarly to other weight management solutions, these drugs can be seen as further exacerbating the issue ofweight discrimination - instead of removing the stigma around weight, they're essentially just adding to it.

Are we moving from discriminating against overweight people for their body composition and eating habits, to now telling larger people to just take the 'magic cure'? And blaming them if they don't?

Then, there's still that stigma around "cheating" weight loss. The idea of not losing body fat "the old-fashioned way" through diet and exercise.

No matter what way you want to look at it, one thing rings true: In 2023, the future of weight loss might feel different - but it sure looks and feels a lot like it did in the past.

What are your thoughts? Where do you see our relationship with weight loss medication going? Share your thoughts with us in the comment section below.

Feature image: Getty

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In 2023, weight loss drugs are having a revolution. What happens next? - Mamamia

Weight loss is a process that involves reducing body weight by decreasing body fat or muscle mass. Losing weight can be achieved through a combination of healthy eating habits and regular physical activity. Weight loss occurs when the body burns more calories than it consumes, resulting in a calorie deficit. This deficit can come from a reduction in calorie intake, an increase in physical activity, or a combination of both.

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Losing weight can be challenging, and it's easy to make mistakes that can slow down your progress or even hinder your weight loss efforts altogether. Maintaining a healthy weight is important for overall health and well-being.

1. Improving overall health: Maintaining a healthy weight can help reduce the risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and certain cancers.

2. Boosting self-confidence: Losing weight can improve self-esteem and body image, which can have a positive impact on overall well-being.

3. Enhancing athletic performance: Losing weight can help improve athletic performance by reducing the amount of weight that needs to be carried during physical activity.

4. Preparing for a special event: Some people may want to lose weight to prepare for a special event, such as a wedding or vacation.

5. Addressing a health condition: People with certain health conditions, such as high blood pressure or sleep apnea, may be advised to lose weight to manage their condition.

6. Fitting into clothing: Some people may want to lose weight to fit into smaller clothing sizes or to wear certain types of clothing.

1. Setting unrealistic goals: Setting goals that are too ambitious or unrealistic can lead to frustration and disappointment, which can eventually lead to giving up altogether.

2. Skipping meals: Skipping meals or drastically reducing your calorie intake can slow down your metabolism and make it harder to lose weight in the long run.

3. Relying on fad diets: Fad diets are diets that promise quick weight loss through drastic changes in eating habits. Fad diets may promise quick weight loss, but they often lack the nutrients your body needs and can be difficult to maintain in the long term.

4. Not getting enough sleep: Lack of sleep can disrupt your metabolism and increase your appetite, making it harder to lose weight.

5. Overestimating calorie burn: Overestimating the number of calories you burn during exercise can lead to overeating, which can hinder your weight loss efforts.

6. Not tracking progress: Not tracking your progress can make it difficult to identify what's working and what's not, making it harder to adjust your plan accordingly.

7. Lack of consistency: Consistency is key when it comes to weight loss. Skipping workouts or cheat days too often can slow down progress or lead to weight gain.

Remember, losing weight is a journey that requires patience and commitment. It's important to set realistic goals, make sustainable lifestyle changes, and stay consistent over time to achieve lasting results.

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Weight Loss: Avoid These 7 Common Mistakes When Trying to Lose Weight - Zee News

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