Weight Loss

Losing weight when obese or overweight is an important part of improving overall health and reducing the risk of developing many other conditions including:

• High blood pressure
• High cholesterol​
• Type 2 diabetes
• Coronary artery disease (CAD)

There are many measures that you can take yourself to help lose weight. The most common involve making changes to diet and becoming more active. Changes to diet can come in a number of ways:

• Eating breakfast can help stop you snacking throughout the day
• Drinking more water can sometimes stop you consuming extra calories as  youmay think you are hungry when you really just need some water
• Eating healthy meals regularly throughout the day helps to burn calories more quickly and prevent snacking
• Eating fruit and veg can help with weight loss as they are low in calories and fat whilst high in fibre

Where you have tried suggestions for losing but are still not seeing any weight loss or even gaining weight, it could be a result of a medical problem or a medication you are taking. Medical reasons for putting on weight include:

• Steroid treatment – corticosteroids can increase appetite buy affecting the area in the brain that controls hunger
• Underactive thyroid (hypothyroidism) – a reduction in thyroid hormones leads to a slowdown in metabolism which can lead to weight gain
• Cushing’s syndrome – a very rare (1 in 50,000) problem that can result from long term steroid treatment or from a tumour.
• Diabetes treatment – people with diabetes often eat more than they need in order to prevent low blood sugar, however this can lead to excessive calorie intake and weight gain.
• Fluid retention (oedema) – fluid accumulates in one or more parts of the body leading to an overall weight gain from the increase of fluid in the body.
• Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) – a common condition affecting womens’ ovaries, one of the symptoms of which is weight gain.

If you think one these or any other problem is keeping you at an unhealthy weight, or you want advice on what you can do to help with weight loss, book an appointment with our GP by calling 02074991581or book it with our online form.