An estimated 97 million adults in the U.S. are overweight or obese, creating public health concerns and making weight management a topic of great interest. The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) recently issued guidelines to help doctors identify, evaluate and treat their patients who fall into these categories.

According to NIH data, the number of adults who are overweight or obese has increased to 54.9% of the population. They are at increased risk of death and of these diseases:

• Hypertension (high blood pressure)
• Dyslipidemia (high cholesterol)
• Type 2 diabetes
• Coronary heart disease
• Stroke
• Gallbladder disease
• Osteoarthritis
• Sleep apnea and other respiratory problems
• Endometrial, breast, prostate, and colon cancers

Overweight and obesity are the second leading cause of preventable death in the U.S. today. The new guidelines recommend weight loss to help control diseases worsened by obesity but also to decrease the likelihood of developing these diseases in the first place. The NIH panel reviewed hundreds of clinical reports and concluded that weight loss does in fact reduce blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and blood glucose - all factors in chronic diseases.

The NIH panel recommends that the general goals of weight management should be to reduce body weight, to maintain a lower body weight over the long term, and to prevent further weight gain. According to the guidelines, the initial goal of weight loss management should be to lose approximately 10% of one's weight, which research has shown to be a reasonable goal for a well-designed program of weight management. The research also showed that weight loss at the rate of 1 to 2 pounds/week commonly occurs for up to 6 months among people in a weight management program. Further, the panel noted, moderate weight loss can be maintained over time if some form of therapy continues.

We will examine more of the guidelines on this site in the coming weeks.

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