How much weight to lose?

The goal of obesity treatment is health gain, not just weight loss.  When we talk about weight loss, what we really want to achieve is a reduction in excess body fat (adiposity), particularly visceral fat (around our organs). The problem with using weight as a measure of health (or progress with a weight management program), is that it also measures our muscle, bone, water content etc. in addition to fat.

 

At Perth Weight Clinic, we use a range of measures to determine your body fat mass and its distribution. This enables us to target a reduction in visceral fat in our weight management program and to ensure muscle mass is preserved as much as possible. 

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Visceral fat

We all have some visceral fat but in excess it can become dysfunctional releasing a wide array of inflammatory molecules that cause damage to our blood vessels and organs. Clinical obesity is rather like a chronic inflammatory condition which over time causes progressive disease, ill-health and reduced quality of life. There are many conditions now considered direct complications of obesity (rather than just being an association). For example, some types of heart failure, low testosterone in men, obstructive sleep apnoea, fatty liver disease, and knee osteoarthritis are sometimes complications of obesity. Treating obesity can help to prevent or manage these conditions.

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Personalised weight management

Given weight loss is associated with improved health for people living with obesity, how much weight should you lose? At Perth Weight Clinic, we develop a personalised weight management program with goals specific to your health needs. Many people will see improvements in their health with small amounts of weight loss. However, for some people with certain health conditions, e.g., diabetes, heart failure, a larger amount of weight loss may be needed to manage these conditions.

 

For most people with obesity, a weight loss target of 10% of total weight is a reasonable goal to provide clinically meaningful results. In other words, for a person with obesity weighing 100 kg, a weight reduction of 10 kg may bring about improvements in blood glucose, cholesterol levels, blood pressure and obstructive sleep apnoea, if these were present.