Thursday, December 04, 2014

65% of the country need help with weight-loss

New weight-loss guidelines issued last year recommend behavioral treatment for 140 million American adults - 65% of the population, a new study indicates.

This is a "staggering" increase in the number of Americans for whom weight-loss therapies are recommended, researchers stated at Obesity Week 2014.

"It points to the need for public-health solutions, because it's going to be very difficult for the medical establishment to deal with this many people. We're going to have to try to do what we can on all fronts," they said.

Overweight Category Now Includes More People

The guidelines for treating individuals with excess weight that were issued last year by the American Heart Association (AHA), American College of Cardiology (ACC), and the Obesity Society (TOS) would recommend weight-loss treatment for 13% more Americans than the previous obesity-treatment guidelines issued in 1998. Overweight individuals need to have only one as opposed to two cardiovascular risk factors, and one of the risk factors could be extra girth around the waist.

Criteria for Recommending Weight-Loss Treatment in Adults

  • Obese
  • Overweight or large waist plus at least 2 of 7 CVD risk factors:
  • Hypertension
  • Impaired fasting glucose
  • Abnormal LDL cholesterol
  • Low HDL cholesterol

Men above age 44; women above age 54 or postmenopausal

  • Smoking
  • Family history of premature CHD
  • Overweight plus at least 1 of 4 CVD risk factors:
  • Hypertension
  • Prediabetes or diabetes
  • Dyslipidemia
  • Large waist

One way to help? New physical activity guidelines examined in the most recent issue of British Journal of Sports Medicine:

Adults partook in moderate-intensity aerobic activity a minimum of 30 min on 5 days, or vigorous-intensity activity of 20 min on 3 days, each week. Compared with inactive subjects, those that met or exceeded physical activity gaining meaningful weight of was significantly lower.

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