Personal Program

What is obesity?

Obesity is a medical condition in which excess body fat has accumulated to the extent that it may have an adverse effect on health, leading to reduced life expectancy and/or increased health problems. The ‘body mass index’ (BMI), a measurement which compares weight and height, defines people as overweight (pre-obese) if their BMI is between 25 and 30 kg/m2. When this number is greater than 30 kg/m2 we are talking about obesity.

What causes obesity?

Obesity is most commonly caused by a combination of excessive food energy intake, lack of physical activity and genetic susceptibility, although a few cases are caused primarily by genes, endocrine disorders, medications or psychiatric illness. Evidence to support the view that some obese people eat little yet gain weight due to a slow metabolism is limited; on average obese people have a greater energy expenditure than their thin counterparts due to the energy required to maintain an increased body mass.

What are the risks of being obese?

Obesity increases the likelihood of various diseases, particularly heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obstructive sleep apnoea, certain types of cancer, and osteoarthritis. Obesity is a leading preventable cause of death worldwide, with increasing prevalence in adults and children and authorities view it as one of the most serious public health problems of the 21st century.

Why don't other methods work?

Regular diets and physical exercise are the mainstays of treatment for obesity. Right now these are the methods offered:

• Most diets are all about reducing the consumption of energy-dense foods such as those high in fat and sugars and increasing the intake of dietary fibre. Following one of these 'hunger diets' actually produces weight loss, but doesn't deal with all other problems which are directly tied to the symptoms of obesity and being overweight. Also, these diets often take a lot of discipline to follow.

• The amount of anti-obesity drugs and fat burning pills has grown enormously during the past decade. Nowadays the public is literally being bombarded with all kind of "magical" pills which will promise a leaner you just in a matter of days. Besides the fact that most fat burners are no more than glorified caffeine, there are also a lot of side effects that come with these pills. These include: Central nervous system burnouts, exhaustion, mental fatigue, mood swings, loss of the body's ability to recover from everyday stress and even psychological problems such as depression and anxiety.

• When dieting, exercise and medication are not effective, a more drastic solution is being offered by placing a gastric balloon or performing surgery to reduce stomach volume and/or bowel length, leading to earlier satiation and reduced ability to absorb nutrients from food. As you can imagine this 'solution' delivers an intense blow to the body and therefore comes with a truckload of side effects. These include: occasional cramps, sense of nausea, vomiting, damage to the oesophagus or stomach, bleeding, general discomfort, the formation of ulcers, risk of infection and intestinal obstruction which is caused by the balloon leaking and deflating which will cause it to pass through the intestines like normal food and cause an obstruction on its way through. A lot of these problems will require additional surgery.

Although the methods mentioned above will actually produce weight loss they all come with additional problems and risks. Also all of the methods mentioned focus only on reduction of fat, whereas the Life2Change program focuses on the core of the problem which the body itself will show without any problem. Every single person on this planet is different, therefore the solution for obesity and being overweight should be unique and different as well. Only this approach will cause the client to lose weight in at incredible rate, increase all other stats like muscle tissue and energy and bring the body back to balance.