The world today has become obsessive about losing weight in order to look good. At one time although it is a good initiative it also has its flip side when people resort to drastic and unhealthy treatments in order to achieve their goals. Hence losing weight is not the issue but how you lose it is actually the main cause of concern. When you plan your weight loss regime you need to question yourself the following questions:

1. Which weight loss treatment would suit me and my lifestyle the best?
2. Will I be able to sustain the treatment?
3. Is the treatment healthy for me?
4. What schedule would I need to adhere to maintain the weight?
5. Will I be able to do so?

These questions would let you narrow down your choices considerably and make it comparatively easier to choose from.

In the recent years “Yoga” has suddenly made an entry in our lives and has some excellent reviews from people who claim to have got back in shape thanks to “Medical Yoga”. So what exactly is medical yoga and how effective is it for controlling obesity.

Medical yoga targets not just physical wellness but also psychological wellness. It believes that a healthy mind is a must for a healthy and fit body. This is especially important for cases where people tend to binge on food when their stress levels escalate. Medical yoga keeps your mind in perfect control and hence prevents any such binging sessions that make you put on weight.

The magic of Yoga on weight loss was discovered when yoga practitioners noticed that their regular clients started losing weight that they were unable to do so in spite of numerous diets. The obvious relation came to the picture; yoga includes body postures that relax the mind, body and soul. When these three are at peace and in sync automatically the body becomes healthier. As a result the body starts shedding the extra fat that would make it unhealthy making you slimmer without “even trying too hard”.

Yoga has shown spectacular results in curbing obesity even in case of patients restricted to the wheel chair. According to yoga the root cause of weight gain is “Stress” in our everyday life. The constant fretting, fuming, fussing, running about, multi-tasking, lack of sleep, unhealthy eating, erratic schedules etc are all increasing the stress in our daily life. Hence the body starts accumulating fats as the hormones to burn fats are not doing their proper work as stress hampers their functioning.

Medical Yoga helps you to think with clarity and teaches you how to deal with stress without straining your mind and body. It targets your “self awareness” and makes you understand “yourself”. It teaches your mind to differentiate between what is good for the body and what is not. Medical yoga combines various yogic postures that help cleanse your mind and regain the control over your body to be able to lose weight effectively and maintain it.

Weight loss has so many myths surrounding itself that unfortunately one does not know whom to believe and whom not to believe. The innumerable medical treatments, diets, drugs, exercises, surgeries, ayurvedic treatments etc have made the consumer confused and indecisive on what is the best treatment for him.

No matter what your body constitution and medical history, you should remember one thing that weight loss is not a “quick-fix” solution. Anyone who claims otherwise is making a fool out of you. And even if you do end up losing weight “miraculously” in just a few days, be prepared for some serious medical complications as it is not healthy to lose large amount of weight quickly.

The body has to be respected and given time to shed the excess weight. Only then would the weight loss be termed healthy and you would be able to sustain it. Those people who wish to look slim for just a few days and then bloat up again are those who preferred taking the short cuts to weight loss.

Unfortunately for the consumer, weight loss treatments are an enormous business opportunity for business conglomerates. Keeping all ethics aside, they look at weight-loss drugs as a cash cow that they wish to milk to the maximum. Every publication you read and every second commercial you come across is speaking about a “wonder drug” that would melt away all your fat. So how do you decipher which drug is effective and whether it would really deliver the results they are promising?

Before you take weight-loss drugs try to understand what these drugs really are:

1. Drugs that reduce your appetite- These drugs target your craving for food by suppressing your appetite. Thus you feel less hungry so automatically your food consumption reduces.
2. Drugs that increase your body’s metabolism- These drugs increase your body’s metabolism so that your body is able to burn fat faster and minimize the fat storage in the body.
3. Drugs that block all fat absorption in the body- These drugs prevent the fat from getting stored in the body.

There are a few drugs that have been approved by the FDA and other medical councils but the only catch in these drugs is that their results are short term and some people may complain of side effects too.

Obviously you cannot have these drugs for ever, so as soon as you stop the drug your body comes back to its normal state and your weight gain begins. Drugs can help you only if they are not the only weight-loss option you have opted for. If you can supplement your weight loss drugs with adequate exercise to maintain the weight loss then you can try out these drugs. The aim should be to bring down the weight to the desired level and then continue work-outs to keep it there even when your body no longer has the support of the drugs. Whether you do work-outs, yoga, aerobics or whatever method you choose, you need a back-up plan with weight loss drugs.

Till about a few decades earlier one only heard of diet and exercise as the techniques for losing weight. However, in todays body conscious world various methods, techniques, drugs etc have come in the picture that claim to give you a body shape you always desired to have. People no longer have qualms of going under the knife to get the body of their dreams. So how safe are such surgical treatments and do they actually last?

When we talk about surgical weight loss treatment there are a number of options:

1. Lap-band surgery: In this surgical treatment the surgeon uses a prosthetic devise known as the lap-band and separates the stomach into two parts. The lap-band is actually similar to a ring and forms a pouch like structure in the stomach. The bigger part of the stomach stays below the smaller part that was formed using the lap-band. The smaller stomach created by the lap-band reduces your appetite as you would now feel full faster as the net capacity of the stomach has been reduced. This reduced appetite would help you lose weight effectively. The science behind this surgery is to make the person feel satiated faster and keep feeling full for longer durations. This surgery is generally recommended for people who are abnormally obese and for those for whom their food intake is enormous. Also this surgery is generally recommended only if your excess weight is posing to be a life threatening problem for you.
2. Gastric Balloon surgery: This is also one of the renowned weight loss surgeries that use a premium quality silicon balloon, placement tube and filling system. This balloon is inserted in the stomach by surgery and the objective of the balloon is to make you feel satiated soon and thereby reduce your appetite significantly. Apart from satiating your appetite it also gives you the impression of having a full stomach for longer periods thereby increasing the gap between two meals. The best part about this surgery is that it is an out-patient surgical procedure that takes not more than half an hour. Just a few hours of rest post the surgery and you would be sent home by the end of the day. The first week the patient is put on a liquid diet with high water intake. Thereby the dietician advises you on how to plan your meals for the day that include solids too. You should be prepared for a 6 month regime of a diet program after inserting the balloon. You would be offered proper training and guidance by a team of experts who would track your weight, diet, progress, regime with diligence for maximum weight loss possible. The program focuses on altering your lifestyle in such a way that you start leading your lifestyle in the appropriate manner even when the balloon is no longer there in the stomach. The best part about this surgery is that it is not a stop gap measure. It educates and modifies your life for the better so that you don’t suffer from obesity again in your life.