Day Forty Seven!!

A penny for your thoughts?


How much money have you spent on weight loss?
It’s crazy to think of the hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars that people suffering from excess weight have wasted, chasing after the chance to be thin. Thinking that it is the easiest way, and throwing their money at the wrong treatments and getting little success.


I remember watching those old movies with the gorgeous blonde trying to vibrate away the fat with a belt around her butt. “I remember purchasing a vibration belt and the idea was to keep sucking in your tummy to strengthen your tummy muscles and every time you relaxed the belt would buzz. I didn’t wear it for very long before I threw my back out. Then I threw it out’ said my mom. Then for a period of time my doctor was promoting a pill that you could take, that would stop your system from digesting fat. And so I would go to the bathroom and eject great globs of watery fat, unprocessed. It didn’t hurt but it made a mess of everything.”
 
My grandmother would exercise on the floor every night with a wheel she would push back and forth and she would do calisthenic exercises. Then she tried the grapefruit diet, and moved on to the vinegar diet. Then she moved on to the Wheatabix cereal diet before finally going to weight watchers in which she did manage to hold off gaining back her weight for 2 years. 


Besides fad diets there are three primary approaches to treating obesity and disordered eating; surgical, pharmaceutical, and behavioural. If you have attempted one of these treatment approaches and yet you keep struggling, perhaps you too are a food addict. Yesterday I talked about the 600 lb person, the surgery of choice on that show is bariatric surgery. Yet without changing the way in which the person views food, the return of the weight is almost inevitable. So there are four types of surgical treatment; intestinal bypass, gastric band, duodenal switch, and stomach stapling. The goal is either to obstruct food intake or limit the absorption of food.


I think my friend had the stomach stapling. This can be done on an outpatient bases. Apparently, there is a 50% success rate in the first two years. But again the patient has to follow the recommended diet and exercise plan. 


So limiting the amount a person can eat does not necessarily work because the type of food they eat is regarded as their own responsibility. There are complications to these surgeries and 40% develop new medical problems. As well, it has been proven that there is another complication. People have a tendency to switch from one type of addiction to another, generally developing either drug dependancy or alcohol dependancy. 


Appetite suppressants increase the bodies metabolism and of course have side effects and unpleasant consequences. 


Behavioural therapy combines psychotherapeutic treatment with food plans. 


So bottom lining it, with all of the above approaches, if the food addiction is not addressed, no matter what the treatment, the advances will be continually sabotaged by food cravings. Which suggests that the answer is clear. Restricting the foods that create the cravings is the treatment for success. 

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