Background: To explore the extent to which people living with obesity have attempted to lose weight, their attitudes towards dieting, physical exercise and weight loss solutions, why their weight loss attempts have failed, and their opinions about what would be most beneficial to them in their struggle with their weight.
Method: Qualitative study, using open-ended interviews, of 76 people living with obesity in Victoria, Australia in 2006/7. Individuals with a BMI of 30 or over were recruited using articles in local newspapers, convenience sampling, and at a later stage purposive sampling techniques to diversify the sample.
Background: Helping patients to achieve and maintain their most healthy weight is a common challenge. Giving a "one size fits all" set of instructions to patients who are over their most healthy weight does not help.
Objective: This article discusses approaches to assist weight loss in patients while treating each patient as an individual.
Background: The traditional management of overweight and obesity is to make weight loss the primary goal and to offer advice about eating less and exercising more. In controlled settings participants who remain in weight loss programs usually lose 10% of their weight, However, one to two-thirds of the weight lost is regained within one year, and almost all is regained within five years.
Method: At the Melbourne Weight Management and Eating Behaviour Clinic we designed a program to assist patients achieve and maintain a healthy weight.