"The rebound effect"

Today it is on the minds of many people to "go on a diet" to lose weight.

Note that I have put "dieting" in quotation marks and here the problem begins, because what we must first take into account is that to lose weight we must be under the supervision of a medical professional (a doctor) who has also performed a specialty and / or master's degree in Clinical Nutrition, which gives you the authority to know your metabolic condition and, on that knowledge, make changes that allow you to methodically and scientifically achieve the weight reduction that your body needs, through changes that must be internalized step by step, so that the reduction achieved lasts over time.

Obesity and overweight? Let's first define overweight and / or obesity. We speak of overweight or obesity when there is a higher percentage of fat mass in relation to the lean or muscular mass of the body; For this we appeal to anthropometric measures such as the body mass index (BMI). When the BMI is greater than 30 Kg / m2 we speak of obesity.

At those times we decided to seek help, and many times that search is not carried out in the most correct way, because the first thing we do is search the internet for free diets that we can download; then, not seeing the expected result, we go to Instagram and follow the "guidelines" of "influencers" that are in fashion, many of them without specialized medical training, we continue to search and find a friend who gave such results or what diet and finally, after exhausting a series of unscientific steps, no longer hopeless, we decided to visit a nutrition specialist.

Obviously, this brings frustration and failures that we must work from the perspective of patient re-education, starting from scratch in order to achieve the desired objectives.

What's happening in the world? Let's look at some figures of overweight and obesity worldwide, according to data from the CDC (Center for Disease Control in the United States) from 1999-2000 to 2017-2018 the prevalence of obesity in the United States increased from 30.5 % to 42.4 % and morbid obesity increased from 4.7 % to 9.2 %. In the Dominican Republic, and according to a report presented by the United Nations Food Organization (FAO) in 2019, there are around 1.9 million people over 18 years of age who are overweight or obese (26.9 %) What is even more worrying, 100,000 children under 5 years of age are overweight (7.6 %).

And it is worrisome, because if these families are not properly oriented, these children will develop chronic diseases, such as diabetes and hypertension at an early age, which can affect the appearance of their complications.

What to do? At this point, the most important thing is to have an evaluation by a properly trained health professional to determine our metabolic state, am I as I look?
Many times our appreciation of our body does not reflect reality. Depending on how our life experience has been, we may find ourselves overweight or underweight.

The current state should be determined and, based on this evaluation, select the best way to achieve the desired objectives. As for what the "ideal" weight would be, it is not always advisable to take the body mass index measurement as the ideal weight, because aesthetically, reaching the ideal weight is not always recommended. This is where the well-trained health professional puts his knowledge into action and determines what the recommended weight would be for each case.

After the evaluation, and according to the lifestyle of each person, their food preference, religious beliefs, health conditions (diabetes, hypertension, celiac disease, allergies, etc.), the most appropriate eating plan is determined.