Evaluation, Prevention, and Introduction to Treatment

Abstract

Weight loss is the big American game. At any one time millions of people are trying to lose weight. One approach to quantifying this craze is the behavioral risk factor surveillance system, which contacts a random sample of American homes through a telephone survey conducted by state health departments in collaboration with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Bish et al., 2005). In the 2000 survey, 46% of women and 33% of men were trying to lose weight. Women reported trying to lose weight at a lower body mass index (BMI) than did men. Among the women who admitted to being overweight, 60% were trying to lose weight, but men did not reach this level until their BMI exceeded 30 kg/m2. The likelihood of trying to lose weight increased with the amount of education the respondent had. Nearly 20% of the men and women reported using fewer calories and trying to exercise more than 150 minutes per week as their strategy to accomplish their goal. With this degree of interest in the problem of losing weight, it is important for the physician to have a plan of how to approach the issues that are raised by prevention and treatment of overweight.