Being overweight or obese is a major risk factor for many metabolic health conditions, such as heart disease, cancer or poor mental health. Rather than focussing just on weight, we focus on health, as health is an important enabler of our patients being able to live the life they want.

It used to be thought that people who were overweight or obese were just lazy or making poor choices about what to eat. However, through scientific research, we now understand that living with obesity is actually a chronic disease, just like asthma, diabetes or high blood pressure, rather than a choice that people make.

There is a complex interaction between our genetics, physiology, psychology, environment and lifestyle that regulates our weight. Fortunately, just as we have developed effective treatments for many chronic conditions, we now have effective treatments for people living with obesity.
There are lots of myths out there about how to best lose weight; it can be confusing and difficult to know what information you can trust. Unfortunately for most people, trying to control their weight is a lifelong, difficult and at times, depressing journey, often resulting in their weight yo-yoing. 

This yo-yoing occurs because our bodies are programmed to defend us against weight loss. When a person tries to lose weight, the body will try to restore its weight to its “set point” of body weight, by increasing hunger, decreasing fullness and decreasing incidental activity.

In order to be successful at controlling weight in the long term, we must overcome the body’s natural tendency to protect itself against weight loss. The key to this is feeling full and avoiding hunger. If you are hungry, you will be driven to eat, no matter how good your self-control is! But if you feel full and satisfied, then you can make the body think that it is more comfortable at a lower set point of body weight and so long-term weight control becomes a realistic and achievable goal! There are effective, evidence-based interventions to help people avoid hunger.