The statistics for extreme or morbid obesity are concerning, with the 2007-2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey revealing that 5.7 percent of the adult Americans population is morbidly obese. A person with a body mass index of 40 or above is considered morbidly obese. Although surgical procedures can reduce the amount of food a person is able to eat in one sitting, and thus instigate weight loss, a medically supervised diet can have similar results without surgery.
Function
A medically supervised diet is a joint effort between a patient and his physician to reduce his weight and to make the patient's life more enjoyable, help him lose weight steadily to quickly reduce his risk of serious diseases and enable the patient to move more easily and participate in an exercise program. As opposed to simply asking a physician how to lose weight, a patient in a medically supervised program will meet on a regular basis with either a doctor specializing in obesity or a nutritionist who works with the doctor. The doctor or clinic will initially assess a patient's health by ordering blood work and performing a complete physical. Once the program begins, the clinic or doctor will weigh the patient, monitor his caloric intake and make decisions on how to continue week by week.
Low Calorie Diets
The cornerstone of a diet for morbid obesity is low calorie intake, according to the Duke University Health System website. A medically supervised diet usually limits caloric intake to a low of 800 calories and a high of 1,500 caloriesper day. A physician will closely monitor a person following very-low-calorie diet, generally between 250 to 800 calories a day, if that isprescribed. A very-low-calorie diet is an extreme diet generally undertaken to help patients quickly reduce weight due to serious medical conditions such as uncontrolled blood sugar, high blood pressure or a diagnosis of sleep apnea.
Liquid Diets
A liquid diet can help a morbidly obese patient reduce her weight very quickly due to the extremely small number of calories consumed each day. Most liquid diets contain between 600 and 800 calories, making it necessary for a doctor to oversee the rate of weight loss and determine when the patient can begin adding small amounts of solid food back into her diet. A 2004 response to a Louisiana Senate Concurrent Resolution indicates that a liquid diet under medical supervision is about 15 to 25 percent effective at helping a patient reduce weight at the four-month mark, whereas a gastric surgery procedure is up to 30 percent effective at one year.
Considerations
An important component of a medically supervised diet for a morbidly obese person is lifestyle interventions. While liquid diets, low calorie and very-low-calorie diets all produce weight loss in morbidly obese patients, without education on nutrition, instruction on safe exercise and one-on-one or group support, the likelihood that the morbidly obese patient will maintain or continue the weight loss may be diminished. The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals report on weight loss interventions indicated that group support meetings are often more effective and have a smaller drop-out rate than individual support sessions.
References
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys: Prevalence of Overweight, Obesity and Extreme Obesity Among Adults: United States, Trends 1976 - 1980 Through 2007 - 2008; Cynthia L. Ogden, et al.; June 2010
- National Institutes of Health: Obesity
- Duke University Health System: Non-Surgical Management of Morbid Obesity
- Mayo Clinic: Treatments and Drugs
- Louisiana Department of Health & Hospitals: Effectiveness of Interventions for Overweight and Obesity in Adults; Pamela Davis Martin, et al.; March 2004
Member Comments