Overweight & Obesity
Obesity is considered a chronic disease. It is metabolic, hormonal, and genetic, with over 200 genes that have been discovered that are associated with obesity. For most people, diet and exercise are not enough to lose with and maintain weight loss. Just like most chronic diseases, most people require both lifestyle modifications and medication.
​
Most women gain weight during the menopausal transition, but even hormone therapy does not prevent weight gain or cause weight loss. These hormonal changes during mid-life can exacerbate weight gain for those already struggling with weight.
​
​
Health Benefits
Losing even 5-10% of body weight (and keeping it off) for someone who has a BMI >30 can have lasting health benefits including:
-
Decrease joint pain
-
Decrease the risk of breast cancer and other cancers
-
Improve cholesterol
-
Decrease the chance of diabetes or improve glucose control if you already have diabetes
-
Decreaes blood pressure
-
Improve sleep apnea
-
Improve PCOS symptoms
-
Reverse insulin resistance
-
Improve sleep
-
Improve mood
-
Reduce Inflammatory markers
Medications
Most anti-obesity medications work by altering hormones that are responsible for hunger, satiety, and energy expenditure. I like to think of it this way -- our body's usually have a weight set-point. The place where our brain thinks we should weigh or the amount of extra energy stored in the form of fat that our body thinks we need to carry around "just in case". It takes a lot of work (eating very few calories or exercising a lot) to move this set point, and usually as soon as that stops, we go right back to that set point. These medications work in the brain to change this set point so that our body is able to let go of excess fat and keep it off more easily. However, this also means that we must usually continue these medications after the weight loss as well in order to maintain weight loss.
