Year End Round Up, February 2010
As I take a few days off for the Holidays, I will be reposting links to some of my favourite obesity posts of 2010. Do Brains of Obese People Respond Differently to Food? Drinking Water Before Meals Promotes Weight Loss? Are Fatness Genes the Fitness Genes? Traditional Family Routines Reduce Childhood Obesity Grandma’s Job is to Make Grandkids Eat Happy Holidays! AMS
Year End Round Up, January 2010
As I take a few days off for the Holidays, I will be reposting links to some of my favourite obesity posts of 2010. How Many Extra Calories Do You Need to Become Obese? Non-Surgical Weight Loss For Extreme Obesity Primary Care Needs To Restructure Its Approach to Obesity Obesity Drives Hypertension in the Young Canadian Obesity Crisis: More Fat, Less Fit Happy Holidays! AMS
Weekend Roundup, December 16, 2010
As not everyone may have a chance during the week to read every post, here’s a roundup of last week’s posts in order of popularity: Do You Know Your Calories? Plus and Minus of Teaching Obesity Genetics Is There Value in Obesity Management? Does Weight Discrimination Affect Glucose Control? Register Now For Canadian Summit on Weight Bias and Discrimination Have a great Sunday! (or what’s left of it) AMS Edmonton, Alberta You can now also follow me and post your comments on Facebook
Let’s Talk About Weight (Part 2)
Today’s post is another excerpt from “Best Weight: A Practical Guide to Office-Based Weight Management“, recently published by the Canadian Obesity Network. This guide is meant for health professionals dealing with obese clients and is NOT a self-management tool or weight-loss program. However, I assume that even general readers may find some of this material of interest. Let’s Talk About Weight (Part 2) Whether patients express interest in weight management after you initiate the discussion or start the discussion themselves, your first reaction should be to offer encouragement while gently probing their motives and goals. This is a good opportunity to determine whether your patient has realistic expectations and a plan for achieving their goals. Ask “Why?” after patients state a desire to lose weight and they will certainly be surprised, but in a constructive way. More often than not they will explain their reasons or come back with a question such as “Don’t you think I should?” This type of conversation provides a valuable opportunity to learn about your patient’s motives and objectives. Motivation: Aesthetics vs. Health Aesthetics are a prime motivator for many people who want to lose weight. Do not make the mistake of equating this with superficiality before you have explored your patients’ motivation a little further. While going to a wedding or fitting into a bathing suit may not seem a strong foundation for long-term resolve, aesthetic considerations such as increasing self-esteem, improving sex life, dressing better or finding a partner, are all strong and reasonable reasons for initiating weight-management efforts. However, it is important to emphasize that while weight loss may help them achieve appearance-related goals, it is not a remedy for relationship difficulties or psychological issues. A patient motivated primarily by the desire to improve a relationship or increase self-esteem may be less likely to achieve weight-management goals than one motivated by health reasons. [Pearl: If weight loss is driven mainly by concerns over body image and self-esteem, then these issues need to be addressed. It may help to point out to these patients that “weight cycling” is a sure-fire way to keep gaining weight.] If patients report improving health as their primary objective, we try to elicit specific examples of what should improve, such as increased energy or less knee pain. We then try to define objective quality-of-life or health goals that can be achieved within a reasonable time span; for one… Read More »
Register Now for the Canadian Summit on Weight Bias and Discrimination
On January 17th, 2011, the Canadian Obesity Network is hosting the first National Summit on Weight Bias and Discrimination, at St. Lawrence Hall, Toronto. This summit should be of interest to all health professionals, policy makers, legislators, educators, media and anyone with an interest in understanding and ending the stigma against excess weight. The meeting is open to anyone who has experienced or is concerned about weight bias and discrimination. As regular readers of these pages are well aware, weight bias and discrimination is widespread among the public, health professionals, media, policy makers and employers. Overweight and obesity are often viewed as the result of simply making poor choices or a lack of willpower and self control, and not as the complex conditions they are. The direct implications for the health of those struggling with excess weight are profound. The Canadian Obesity Network seeks to address this important issue by engaging influential thought leaders representing media, education, employers, healthcare systems, law and decision makers to review the evidence on the extent and consequences of weight bias on Canadians. The meeting will be moderated by André Picard, one of Canada’s top health and public policy observers and commentators and columnist for the Globe and Mail. The Council members include: Hon. A. Anne McLellan, Officer of the Order of Canada, who has formerly served as Canada’s Minister of Health, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada Ben Barry, CEO of the Ben Barry Agency, the first modeling agency in the world to challenge the status-quo beauty ideal by representing models of all ages, sizes, backgrounds, and abilities. Merryl Bear, Executive Director of the National Eating Disorder Information Centre Chris Burton, Chief Commissioner at Girl Guides of Canada Bruce Ferguson, Director of the Community Health Services Resource Group at The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto David Sculthorpe, business leader and Chair of PREVNet, a national research network committed to stopping bullying in Canada. Hugh O’Reilly, head of the Pension Benefits and Insolvency Practice at Cavalluzzo Hayes Shilton McIntyre and Cornish, who has also successfully represented patient advocacy groups on human rights issues. Louise Forand-Samson, Artistic Director of the Club musical de Québec and Chair of the Board of the Laval University Research Chair on Obesity. Myles Ellis, director with the Canadian Association for the Practical Study of Law in Education (CAPSLE) and Co-Director of the Research and Information Division at Canadian Teachers’ Federation.… Read More »
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