A Message From Dr. Sabowitz - Obesity Is A Chronic Disease

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Losing weight is easy. Surprised? Well just think about it. Have you ever gone on a diet and not lost weight? Most people will answer no. The problem with diets is that losing weight is not the problem. The problem is keeping weight off! This is because obesity is a chronic disease.

A chronic disease is one that “persists for a long time or is recurring.” Most people are familiar with other chronic diseases such as high blood pressure (hypertension), high cholesterol or diabetes. Chronic diseases require long-term, on-going management. Here’s an example: Suppose you have high blood pressure and your doctor prescribes a pill to bring your blood pressure down. If you take the pill every day your blood pressure stays well controlled. However, if you stop taking your medication eventually your blood pressure is going to start creeping back up and before you know it your blood pressure will be out of control again.

So what does this have to do with obesity? Well, diets are like taking a pill for your obesity. When your on a diet you lose weight and your chronic disease of obesity is under control. However, if you go off your diet it’s like stopping your blood pressure medication. It is inevitable that you will gain weight again. Therefore, in order to successfully control your chronic disease of obesity you need to stop going on diets that you can’t sustain. It’s like taking a blood pressure medication with intolerable side effects. You may take it for a while but eventually your going to stop taking the medication and voila, your back where you started.