Cosmeticsurgeon.co.uk - UK Cosmetic Surgeons

We are always being told that a routine is the best way for us to beat the bulge. 

However, some people have been lapsing into their own set of practises which are leading to massive weight-gain instead of weight loss.  It has been warned that people’s inactive lifestyles, coupled with a 21st century diet bursting with sugar and fat is dragging Britain down a road to unprecedented levels of adult obesity.

This startling new information has come from The National Obesity Forum and is designed to kick-start people into adopting a much healthier daily routine and thus do their part for trimming the obesity figures for the U.K.  Dr. Colin Waine, the chairman of the NOF has said that the dramatic increase in obesity “has been fuelled by changes in our environment in that food is now plentiful and in huge abundance. It is often far too fattening in calorie content and salt and sugar content”. The solution will not be an easy one, it will involve changing our entire attitude to food and how we approach it but, as the experts now seem to be telling us, it will be a necessary change lest we become a nation full of people who can barely struggle from the settee.

One of the main problems is simply the way people now live their lives in the 21st Century.  Cars, lifts, escalators and many more people now able to work from home because of advances in internet technology mean that people simply don’t get enough exercise in the course of a day.  “The way we lead our daily lives has taken any physical activity out of them, so the end result is expanding people and becoming obese,” confirmed Dr. Waine.

The solution is not to simply wake up tomorrow and decide you’re going to enter the Britain’s Strongest Man competition, however.  The way to a healthier body and a happier lifestyle is to gradually introduce exercise into your daily routine and slowly introduce more fruit and vegetables into your day to day diet.  For those who are successful with their dramatic weight loss, liposuction and skin-lifts can help re-contour the body and rid you of any excess skin which may be left over from your more obese days. It’s not just about looking good though; obesity is a health crisis and is damaging the long-term health of millions of people.

A slimming pill that can help people lose weight quickly is about to become available to the public in a few months.

The product is called Alli and works by preventing the body from taking in fat from food. According to the trials, the consumers lost around 10lb in six months.

The medical regulating bodies in Europe have approved the product and it is expected to be launched in pharmacies by the beginning of summer.

According to the manufacturer of the product GlaxoSmithKline, the approval of the drug to be sold without prescription is ‘a significant milestone’, since it is the first product in this field which will be accessible to the public without medical advice.

The participants of the product trials who took the pill daily every time they consumed food, lost about 50 per cent more than those who decided to shift weight naturally. However, there were cases when the dieters shed more than five stone of excess weight.
 
An average decrease in weight of 10lb roughly equals dropping one dress size.
 
However, the new product does have side effects. Due to the body not being able to get rid of undigested fat, consumers of the drug are more likely to experience wind and diarrhoea. Moreover, Alli is thought to prevent the absorption of some vitamins and therefore it is necessary for consumers to take vitamins daily.

The product, which is a much weaker version of prescription slimming pill Xenical, will be accessible to anyone whose body mass index is higher than 28. An individual with a BMI between  25 and 29 is considered overweight and someone with a BMI higher than 30 is categorised as obese.

The drug, which will be available in all major pharmacies, has already accumulated £400 million in US sales during the first year of production.

Its price is yet to be fixed, but in the U.S., where it has been on sale for over a year, it costs around £1 a day. Glaxo has stressed that the pill, taken three times a day, is designed to enhance rather than replace the benefits of diet and exercise.

‘Consumers are spending millions of pounds each year on fad diets, unproven “miracle pills” and potentially unsafe weight loss supplements,’ commented chairman of the National Obesity Forum Dr David Haslam.

‘Medically proven licensed products give consumers the option of something which can genuinely support meaningful weight loss,’ he explained.

However, doubts have been raised over the effectiveness of the drug without trial conditions.

Gareth Williams, who is the editor of a book called Obesity: Science to Practice, claims that changing lifestyle habits can bring the same results as slimming pills.

‘Don’t eat between meals, leave out food that’s obviously full of fat or sugar and get half an hour’s walking exercise a day. That’s all you need to do,’ he advised.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has announced that catering outlets will be encouraged to inform customers about the nutritional value of the food in a bid to change the population’s eating habits and reduce the levels of obesity.

A number of catering businesses will start providing calorie intake information this summer as part of a programme that will aim to find out the clearest and most effective ways to present nutritional guidelines on food products.

The FSA has already introduced the research to more than 50 catering outlets in a meeting, highlighting the population’s opinion about introducing nutritional guidelines in restaurants, takeaways, pubs, sandwich bars and coffee shops.
 
The study confirmed that a high percentage of individuals already use nutritional guidelines on products in order to make informed decisions on healthier food and that people would accept restaurants introducing calorie intake information as a natural step.
 
“As a family man, I know how important it is to have clear information in order to make decisions about the food we, our children and anyone else eat when we go out,” noted chief executive of the FSA Tim Smith.

“Providing calorie information is supported by our consumer research and can only be a good thing for all consumers.”

The British Heart Foundation reacted positively to the FSA initiative, but would also like catering business to provide information about salt and saturated fat, which can be major causes of heart conditions and obesity if consumed excessively.

In order to reduce numbers of patients in need of cancer and obesity treatment, the health services are encouraged to be “more innovative” in their methods of dealing with poor diet and lack of excercise.

The King’s Fund published findings from a research which took a year and investigated the success rate of various public health programmes that aim at dealing with smoking, alcohol abuse as well as unhealthy lifestyle and obesity problems.

To deal with public health issues effectively, health services will need to use the most recent and most efficient methods, according to Dr Anna Dixon, a co-author of the study and the director of policy at the King’s Fund.

“The reasons people persist with unhealthy habits are complex. It’s often about changing deep-rooted social habits that can become addictive, rather than just helping people make better choices as individuals,” she explained.

The expert commented that financial rewards and campaigns that provide information about health problems are not enough and should work together with other plans, such as customised information and personal consultations

Earlier this year, the National Child Measurement Programme conducted a survey which revealed that almost one in three children in year six of primary school had weight problems.

It is thought that demand for cosmetic surgery is likely to surge due to England‘s population facing significant weight problems.

Figures published by the government reveal that obesity levels in the state have almost doubled from 1993.

The report raises concerns by showing that one in four people were obese in 2007, which can be compared with the obesity levels 14 ago when 16 per cent of women and 13 per cent of men were considered medically obese.

The authors of the research claim that people are still not concerned enough with their need to get a sufficient amount of excercise in order to maintain a healthy body weight.
 
The researchers also note that the majority of the respondents did not know the daily alcohol intake allowance, which can also be linked to the obesity problems.
 
A number of individuals decide to undergo cosmetic surgery as a way of shedding extra pounds immediately.

Liposuction (surgical fat removal) can be used as a solution for weight problems in conjunction with healthy diet and excercise.

Leading Surgeon Says we Should be Keeping Fit Rather than Going Under the Knife.

The New York Times has reported that a top US surgeon, Dr Gerald Pitman has given a lecture in Manhattan recently recommending patients to get plenty of exercise instead of resorting to cosmetic surgery.

Dr Pitman is an Aesthetic Plastic Surgeon based in New York who surprised his Manhattan audience by seemingly discouraging them from undergoing cosmetic surgery. Instead he asked them what kind of lifestyle changes they could make to avoid it. According to the New York Times, it is a question he often asks his patients before they choose the surgical procedures.

According to Pitman, liposuction and tummy tucks are not alternatives to dieting and exercising, which is a misconception a lot of people hold.

As well as liposuction and tummy tucks, he also referred to other cosmetic procedures that could be replaced by opting for lifestyle changes instead, such as avoiding the sun to keep skin healthy and getting plenty of sleep to stop getting baggy eyes. He also pointed out that the exercise attributed to weight loss will also provide a healthier heart and treat osteoporosis.

Liposuction is often used to remove fat that cannot be removed be exercise though the popular belief is that people can use it to get rid of all of their fat, which is not necessarily true. Pitman even points out that overweight people should not undergo surgery as there are more risks of complications under such conditions. Liposuction gets rid of the fatty deposits in areas like the chin, the chest, the stomach, the back or your sides and thighs, usually when dieting and exercise has already been tried out. It is used as a procedure for ‘spot fat reduction’ according to its section on this site.

Tummy Tucks (abdominoplasty) involve removing excess cat and skin from the waist to try to achieve a flatter stomach. It is recommended for those already in good physical health to provide an improved body contour by tightening the abdominal muscles. The effects are dependent on following a balanced diet and exercising regularly even afterwards.

With both procedures, prospective patients are told to be realistic in their expectations.

Source: New York Times.