When To Recommend Weight Loss For Obesity
Obesity medicine, which I define as the medical care of someone living with obesity, should approach patients holistically with the aim of improving their overall health and well-being. Advice to lose weight may or may not be part of obesity management – much can be gained for someone living with obesity by promoting their health behaviours, getting them to feel better about themselves, improving their mental health, and helping them better managing their health issues. Much of this can be achieved with no or very little weight loss. Thus, we must consider the question of when weight loss would specifically need to be part of the treatment objectives. In my own practice, I approach this problem by considering the following three questions: Is this a problem unrelated to abnormal or excess body weight? Is this a problem aggravated by abnormal or excess body weight? Is this a problem caused by abnormal or excess body weight? From what I hear from my patients, the most common mistakes in medical practice fall into the first group – trying to address unrelated issues with weight loss recommendations. There are endless stories of patients going to see their health provider with problems clearly unrelated to their body fat (e.g. a broken arm, a sore throat, the flu, depression, migraines, etc.), who simply get told to lose weight. Indeed, there is evidence to suggest that patients with obesity are less likely to undergo diagnostic testing, most likely based on the assumption that their problems are simply related to their excess weight. This is not only where grave medical errors can be made (late or misdiagnosis), but also where the advice to lose weight is clearly wrong. If the presenting problem has nothing to do with excess weight, then no amount of weight loss will fix it. The second category deals with issues that are not causally related to abnormal or excess body fat but where the underlying problem either causes more symptoms or is more difficult to treat because of the patient’s size or fat distribution. There are countless medical problems that fall into this category. For e.g. a heart or respiratory problem entirely unrelated to excess weight (e.g. a valvular defect or asthma) can become worse, cause more symptoms, or be much more difficult to treat simply because of the patient’s size. This group also includes issues like neck or joint pain from a trauma… Read More »
The Three Clinical Faces of Obesity
In my experience, patients presenting with obesity tend to fall into three categories, each of which requires a distinct management approach. They are 1) Active Gainers, 2) Weight Stable, and 3) Post-Weight Loss. Active Gainers are patients currently at their lifetime maximum and continuing to gain significant amounts of weight – i.e. more than the usual 0.5 to 1 lb/year. Patients in this category require immediate attention – if nothing happens, their weight will most likely just continue to increase. The good news is that in almost every patient in this category, there is an identifiable reason for the ongoing weight gain – this can be psychosocial (e.g. depression, binge-eating disorder, etc.), due to a medical comorbidity (arthritis, chronic pain, etc.) or medications (e.g. atypical antipsychotics, hypoglycemic agents, etc.). From a management perspective, the sooner we identify and address the underlying problem, the sooner we can slow or even halt the rate of weight gain – in this patient – gaining less weight than before is the first sign of success. There is really no point trying to embark on losing weight as long as the underlying problem driving the weight gain has not been addressed, as this is likely to make sustained weight loss even more unlikely that it already is.. Weight Stable patients are those that present with excess weight but are relatively weight stable. Even though they may be at their lifetime maximum, they have been pretty much the same weight (perhaps a few lbs up or down but nothing drastic) for several years (sometimes even decades). By definition, a patient who is weight stable is in caloric balance, and thus, by definition is not eating too much. In fact, these patients are eating the exact number of calories needed to sustain their bodies, which is why they are weight stable. (Remember, even if you are weight-stable eating 4000 Cal a day, you are technically not “overeating”.) These patients of course have experienced significant weight gain in the past (historical weight gain), but whatever it was that caused them to gain weight is no longer an active problem (e.g. pregnancy, past depression, etc) – and therefore, probably doesn’t need to addressed (although, I always find it of interest to find out what caused the weight gain in the first place). With these patients, we can determine whether or not their weight is affecting their health, and if… Read More »
Sleep Restriction Leads To Less Fat-Loss
Regular readers will be well aware of the increasing data supporting the importance of adequate restorative sleep on metabolism and weight management. Now, a study by Wang Xuewen and colleagues, published in SLEEP, shows just how detrimental sleep deprivation can be during a weight-loss diet. Their study included thirty-six 35-55 years oldadults with overweight or obesity, who were randomized to an 8-week caloric restriction (CR) regimen alone (n=15) or combined with sleep restriction (CR+SR) (n=21). All participants were instructed to restrict daily calorie intake to 95% of their measured resting metabolic rate. Participants in the CR+SR group were also instructed to reduce time in bed on 5 nights and to sleep ad libitum on the other 2 nights each week. The CR+SR group reduced sleep by about 60 minutes per day during sleep restriction days, and increased sleep by 60 minutes per day during ad libitum sleep days, resulting in a sleep reduction of about 170 minutes per week.Although both groups lost a similar amount of weight during the study ~3 Kg). However, the proportion of total mass lost as fat was significantly greater in the CR group (80% vs. 16%). In line with this substantial difference in fat reduction, resting respiratory quotient was significantly reduced only in the CR group. Importantly, these effects of sleep deprivation on fat loss were observed despite the fact that subjects were allowed to sleep as much as they wanted on the non-restricted days. This suggests that the negative effects of sleep deprivation during weight loss are not made up by “make-up” sleep. Although overall, the amount of weight lost in this study is modest, it clearly fits with the notion that adequate sleep (in this case, during weight loss), can be an important part of weight management. Clearly, the role of sleep in energy homeostasis will remain an interesting field of research, as we continue learning more about how sleep (or rather lack of it) affects metabolism. @DrSharma Edmonton, AB
Semaglutide Continues To Hold Promise For Obesity Treatment
This week, the Lancet published the results of the SUSTAIN7 trial, an open-label, parallel-group, phase 3b trial done at 194 hospitals, clinical institutions or private practices in 16 countries. Eligible patients with type 2 diabetes (HbA1c 7·0–10·5% on metformin monotherapy, n=1201), were randomised to once-weekly injections of the GLP-1 analogues semaglutide 0·5 mg, dulaglutide 0·75 mg, semaglutide 1·0 mg, or dulaglutide 1·5 mg. Over the 40 weeks of treatment, participants on semaglutide had a greater reduction in HbA1c than participants who were on corresponding doses of dulaglutide. More interesting, in the context of this blog, semaglutide was also almost twice as effective in lowering mean body weight than dulaglutide. Thus, bodyweight was reduced by 4·6 kg with semaglutide 0·5 mg compared with 2·3 kg with dulaglutide 0·75 mg and by 6·5 kg with semaglutide 1·0 mg compared with 3·0 kg with dulaglutide 1·5 mg. As expected, the most frequent adverse effects were gastrointestinal. Given that this was not actually a trial designed to maximise weight loss (as would have been attempted in a study primarily designed to study semaglutide as a treatment for obesity), these changes in body weight are certainly quite impressive. These findings no doubt hold promise for the further development of semaglutide as an anti-obesity medication. @DrSharma Edmonton, CA Disclaimer: I have received speaking and consulting honoraria from Novo Nordisk, the maker of semaglutide
New European Guidelines on Medical Management After Bariatric Surgery
The European Association for the Study of Obesity (EASO) had now released the new OMTF guidelines Practical Recommendations of the Obesity Management Task Force of the European Association for the Study of Obesity for Post-Bariatric Surgery Medical Management. The guidelines provide the latest guidance on nutritional management, micronutrient supplementation, managing co-morbidities, pharmacotherapy, psychological management, and prevention and management of weight regain. The guidelines also address the issue of post-bariatric surgery pregnancy. Not covered are issues related to dealing with excess skin and rehabilitation (e.g. return to work, reintegration in social activities, education, etc.), both of significant importance, especially in people with severe obesity. As the authors note, “Bariatric surgery is in general safe and effective, but it can cause new clinical problems and it is associated with specific diagnostic, preventive and therapeutic needs. Special knowledge and skills of the clinicians are required in order to deliver appropriate and effective care to the post-bariatric patient. A post-bariatric multidisciplinary follow-up programme should be an integral part of the clinical pathway at centres delivering bariatric surgery, and it should be offered to patients requiring it” These guidelines are now available open access in Obesity Facts. @DrSharma Edmonton, AB
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