When you need to lose weight, sometimes you can get stuck in a rut. No matter how much you try, it seems like those pounds are never going away, but, luckily, members of the medical community can help you navigate your way to better wellness.
Kidanu Birhanu, a doctor in internal medicine working at the Midwest Bariatric Institute in Dyer, carries out a multidisciplinary, non-diet approach by asking you questions, evaluating your eating and exercise behaviours and, if necessary, helping you to change. He says, ‘One has to know that not all people eat because they are hungry. We have to identify the environment that predisposes them to overeating. Food is an addiction you cannot get rid of easily. A multidisciplinary approach is essential to help the person who wants to help himself or herself. We cannot force people to lose weight. The reason why people gain weight is complicated.’
He explains that patients need to know why they overeat: ‘If the reason is boredom they need to occupy their time with something that will please them. Some people work swing shifts and they keep eating to be awake. When we are too hungry or stressed, we eat high-calorie, high-carbohydrate foods. Sometimes preventing the sugar from becoming too low and create too much hunger will help the person avoid over eating.’
Yet the doctor doesn’t stop with lifestyle changes. According to Dr Birhanu, ‘We also identify certain medications that are known to increase the patient’s appetite and suggest to the primary physician to change such medications.’ In conjunction with behavioural changes, Birhanu uses Phentermine, Diethylpropion and Phendimetrazine, but non-obesity medications can also improve weight loss, such as Topiramate and Zonisamide. Victoza, a diabetes medication, can improve your blood sugar control and appetite, and the antidepressant Wellburtin can help if you have an eating disorder.
However, according to Curtis Bejes, MD, in family practice and holistic medicine and an employee of IU Health La Porte Physicians, products designed for weight loss are frequently removed from the market, mostly due to serious side effects, so, ‘in general, I never prescribe anything for weight loss as far as medication.’ He says your focus needs to be on nutrition and physical activity: ‘If you can get somebody to really stick with the recommendations, they will start losing weight. If you just change eating habits, it can happen but if you can add the physical activity, it can make a huge difference.’
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