Challenging obesity

Obesity is the elephant in the middle of the room to which our health authorities and the medical profession are hardly paying enough attention. The money, energy and focus that Jamaica and the rest of the world spend on diabetes, high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol and cardiovascular disease, driven by the 'drug-based medical model', will continue to yield very poor results if we fail to address the underlying obesity problem in a meaningful way.

And, the 'Obesity Elephant' is huge. According to the World Health Organisation, in 2008, 1.5 billion people over age 20 were overweight and by 2015 it will be 2.3 billion. Globally, more than 500 million adults were obese (badly overweight) and at least 43 million children under five were overweight in 2010. Once considered a problem only in high-income countries, overweight and obesity is now dramatically rising in low- and middle-income countries, particularly in urban areas.

Modern medicine has had very bad results in dealing with obesity. Doctors have a 90 per cent failure rate in helping their patients lose weight. Even worse, the profession continues to promote an ever-growing list of expensive and potentially harmful medications and surgical procedures for the treatment of obesity. Essentially, the modern obesity epidemic is nutritional and lifestyle related and its effective correction lies in dealing with those underlying causes.

It's not difficult at all to find out if you have this problem. Just look at yourself in the mirror and do the nose/belly test: If your belly extends out more than your nose, you are very overweight or frankly obese. If you are still not certain, a quick check of your height, weight and waistline measurement will tell the story.

In a recent featured cover story 'How to fix the Obesity Crisis' the popular publication, Scientific American, reviewed the recent research on obesity and listed four key ingredients that are important in a successful weight-loss programme.

1. An initial personal assessment
2. A self-monitoring system
3. A change of behaviour
4. Group support

I, along with a team of trained weight-loss coaches, have successfully employed a weight-loss strategy in Jamaica that includes all the elements described by the experts. It's called a weight-loss challenge.

WEIGHT-LOSS CHALLENGE

This is a 12-week programme into which individuals who want to lose weight enrol. The group meets for one hour each week in a relaxed, supportive environment.

PERSONAL ASSESSMENT: At the first meeting, each participant has a personal evaluation by a coach that includes weight, detailed measurements and BMI (body mass index) evaluations.

MONITORING: Each week the weight of each member of the group is checked and other changes reported. Each participant is assigned a coach to provide additional follow up.

CHANGING BEHAVIOUR: Every week a different subject is addressed, designed to inform, empower and motivate the participants to make the needed changes in their lives. Various topics are covered including food choices, importance of proteins, healthy carbohydrates, fat facts, eating out, exercise, drinking water, stress and fibre. The message is simple: good nutrition and a healthy lifestyle corrects obesity. We provide easy-to-apply nutritional strategies.

GROUP SUPPORT: The atmosphere in the weight-loss challenge is designed to provide support for all members. Despite its serious focus, fun, joy and optimism prevails. Elements of reward and friendly competition are added to the programme.

Each participant is required to contribute a nominal sum to a 'pot of money'. From this pot, prizes are paid out to the members who lose the most weight and inches at the end of the 12 weeks. Weekly prizes are also paid to the 'top loser' for that week.

Fines are imposed on members who gain weight or who miss sessions and these monies are added to the pot. Fun and excitement is the order of the day in the weight-loss challenges.

Scores of these weight-loss challenge groups now meet across the island and the success stories that they produce are amazing. But if we truly want to halt the obesity epidemic in our country, we need to start many more. These and similar initiatives need corporate and government support. Weight-loss challenges need to be started in offices, work places, schools, churches, community centres and the like. Companies should offer incentives to their staffs and government provide tax breaks on approved weight-loss and fitness products and programmes. At the same time, dis-incentives should be imposed on products known to cause obesity.

You may email Dr Tony Vendryes at tonyvendryes@gmail.com or listen to An Ounce of Prevention on POWER 106FM on Fridays at 8 p.m. His new book 'An Ounce of Prevention - Especially for Women', is now available.