Even Moderate Weight Loss Means Major Reduction in Risk Factors

Even moderate weight loss means a major reduction in risk factors for some chronic diseases.

Among the morbidly obese (150 to 200 percent overweight), moderate weight loss can mean a 20 to 75 percent reduction in risk factors for several chronic diseases, according to George Blackburn, M.D., Ph.D., one of the nation’s leading authorities on obesity.

In one study, significantly overweight patients who lost 10 to 20 percent of their body weight — and kept it off during a three-year follow-up period — reduced their chance of getting hypertension by 70 to 75 percent on average; type 2 diabetes by 40 to 60 percent; and heart disease by 25 to 50 percent.  Plus, the risk of gastrointestinal and sleeping disorders fell by 25 percent.

“The key,” Blackburn said, “is to lose fat while increasing the percentage of lean tissue.  It’s absolutely essential to modify lifelong eating habits, not just go on a crash diet.  The ideal situation is for at least 75 percent of weight loss to be body fat. Blackburn has these recommendations for weight loss:

• Setting realistic goals.  It’s important to determine what is feasible, biologically, for an individual patient, not what is defined as normal by life insurance tables.

• Rate of loss.  It’s most appropriate — and most sustainable — for a patient to lose two to four pounds a month.

• Composition of diet.  Reducing food intake in not goal, reducing fat intake is.  By the end of the first 10 to 14 weeks, which is the intensive habit-changing period, weight loss from fat stores should approach 90 percent.