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- Provide realistic weight loss goals.
- Recommend techniques to help patients adhere to lifestyle changes.
- Counsel patients on adherence to drug therapy.
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Provide realistic weight loss goals.  |
- Acquaint patients with the inevitability that their body loss will reach a plateau at which resistance to weight loss counteracts the effect of therapy.
- Suggest that weight losses of 5% to 10% are realistically attainable through behavioral therapy, diet, and drug therapy and are associated with proven health benefits.
- Indicate that maintaining long-term weight loss is difficult and that exercise is one of the best strategies.
- Inform patients that weight losses of <5% suggest that a change in therapy should be made.
- Inform patients that only surgery provides weight losses consistently above 10%.
| Background | Back to top
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Recommend techniques to help patients adhere to lifestyle changes. |
- Use ongoing office visits or ongoing behavioral therapy to reinforce or boost previously learned procedures, or refer patients to outside groups such as Weight Watchers, Take Off Pounds Sensibly (TOPS), or Overeaters Anonymous.
| Background | Back to top
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Counsel patients on adherence to drug therapy. |
- Counsel patients on maintaining medication intake and make them aware that:
- Drugs for weight loss only work when taken as prescribed
- Plateaus occur with all techniques for weight loss
- It is important to maintain realistic expectations with any therapy
| Background | Back to top
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| George A. Bray, MD, is a speaker for Eli Lilly, Amylin Corp., and Merck & Co, received grants from Merck & Co., and Takeda Pharmaceuticals; and has consulted for Sanofi-Aventis, Merck, and Amylin. |
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The information included herein should never be used as a substitute
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PIER is copyrighted (c) 2008 by the American College of Physicians,
190 N. Independence Mall West, Philadelphia, PA 19106-1572, USA.
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Obesity
