Losing Weight

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Abstract

Obesity is the most common nutritional disorder in Great Britain. Physiologically it results from the caloric imbalance which occurs when the subject's intake of calories exceeds the caloric expenditure; clinically it is the consequence of eating too much food for too long. The basic principle of weight reduction is thus the prescription of a low-calorie diet. All too often, however, patients do not adhere to such diets, either because they have no desire to lose weight, or are unable to resist the temptation or urge to eat, or because they do not understand how to convert the prescribed diet into terms of actual foods and meals. For those who wish to lose weight the simplest dietary regime is the best. Many patients will lose weight if they merely reduce substantially their intake of predominantly carbohydrate foods. The loss of weight is not because carbohydrate foods are more fattening than others, but is due to the lower calorie value of the food taken, since carbohydrate foods form the bulk of the obese patient's usual daily diet. For many patients such restrictions may prove inadequate, and more detailed dietary treatment is then required. Doctors and patients are often alarmed by the complexity of many of the caloriecounting dietary systems advocated by their various textbooks or provided by various firms associated with the pharmaceutical or food industries. Nevertheless, such diets are less complicated than they would appear to be at first sight, and most patients follow with reasonable accuracy a weighed diet using a system of exchanges for carbohydrate, protein, and fat foods provided they are taught properly how to do so. It is no more difficult for them to convert the allowed exchanges into dietary menus than it