Weight Management : According to the guidelines, the most successful strategies for weight loss include calorie reduction, increased physical activity, high carbohydrate and fiber content in diet, palatable food choices, decreased fat consumption and behavior therapy designed to improve eating and physical activity habits. Other recommendations include: Engage in moderate physical activity, progressing to 30 minutes or more on most or preferably all days of the week. Choose a low impact exercise such as walking, swimming or cycling, avoid high-impact aerobics. Besides, begin at low intensity just enough to get your muscles accustomed to moving. Once regular slowly build up on duration by 5-10 min per session. Try to exercise for a longer duration rather than increasing the pace to burn fat. Don't count the scale to tell you the whole story, for muscle weigh more than fat, you may be getting fitter and thinner without corresponding loss of pound. Reducing dietary fat alone--without reducing calories--will not produce weight loss. Cutting back on dietary fat can help reduce calories and is heart-healthy. Foods high in fat and sugar such as cakes, puddings, cream, chips, pies, mayonnaise and butter need not be banned, but should not become a part of your daily diet. Instead eat more vegetables, fruits, wholegrain, and pulses which are filling nutritious but not fattening. Resistance training has been found to significantly increase the Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) and Fat-Free Mass (FFM) in sedentary elderly women. Therefore a personalised Strength Training Programis essential component of a weightloss program. The initial goal of treatment should be to reduce body weight by about 10 percent from baseline, an amount that reduces obesity-related risk factors. With success, and if warranted, further weight loss can be attempted. A reasonable time line for a 10 percent reduction in body weight is six months of treatment, with a weight loss of 1 to 2 pounds per week. Weight-maintenance should be a priority after the first 6 months of weight-loss therapy. Physicians should have their patients try lifestyle therapy for at least 6 months before embarking on physician-prescribed drug therapy. Weight loss drugs approved by the FDA for long-term use may be tried as part of a comprehensive weight loss program that includes dietary therapy and physical activity in carefully selected patients (BMI >30 without additional risk factors, BMI >27 with two or more risk factors) who have been unable to lose weight or maintain weight loss with conventional non-drug therapies. Drug therapy may also be used during the weight maintenance phase of treatment. However, drug safety and effectiveness beyond one year of total treatment have not been established. Weight loss surgery is an option for carefully selected patients with clinically severe obesity -- BMI of > 40 or BMI of >35 with coexisting conditions when less invasive methods have failed and the patient is at high risk for obesity-associated illness. Lifelong medical surveillance after surgery is a necessity. Overweight and obese patients who do not wish to lose weight, or are otherwise not candidates for weight loss treatment, should be counseled on strategies to avoid further weight gain. Age alone should not preclude weight loss treatment in older adults. A careful evaluation of potential risks and benefits in the individual patient should guide management. According to NHANES III, the trend in the prevalence of overweight and obesity is upward. The guidelines note that from 1960 to 1994, the prevalence of obesity in adults (BMI >30) increased from nearly 13 percent to 22.5 percent of the U.S. population, with most of the increase occurring in the 1990s.

Rx Drugs FDA has approved several prescription drugs for obesity. The newest is Xenical (orlistat), which FDA approved in April 1999.Xenical is the first in a new class of anti-obesity drugs known as lipase inhibitors. Lipase is the enzyme that breaks down fat for use by the body. Xenical interferes with lipase function, decreasing fat absorption by 30 percent. Since undigested fats are not absorbed, there is less calorie intake, which may have a positive effect on weight control.Other approved anti-obesity prescription drugs available on the market include:Dexedrine and other amphetamines Ionamin and Adipex-P (Phentermine), Sanorex (mazindol), Tenuate (diethylpropion), Prelu-2 (phendimetrazine) and other amphetamine derivatives Meridia (sibutramine).In mostly short-term studies of obese adults following a calorie-restricted diet, those who took the appetite suppressants lost more weight on average than those who took a placebo. The amount of weight lost varied from study to study.FDA approved the drugs only for use with calorie-restricted diets. The drugs are "not magic pills," warns Leo Lutwak, M.D., Ph.D., of FDA's division of metabolism and endocrine drug products. "They don't work unless you make dietary and exercise changes."Also, they should be used only for a few weeks partly because, aside from Xenical, the drugs are addictive and have the potential for abuse. They shouldn't be used in combination with each other or with other drugs for appetite control because such combinations have not been evaluated for safety. And the drugs should be used only in people who are obese--not people looking to lose a few pounds.Safe Weight-Loss Pills if you're really serious about taking weight-loss pills, there's a safer way to go about it. First, work with a medical professional to develop a treatment plan that fits your needs. There's no reason to go trolling the Internet for weight-loss magic, says Steven Heymsfield, MD, deputy director of the New York Obesity Research Center at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital in New York City. There are safe drugs that can really make a big difference in getting to a healthy weight.There are three drugs most commonly prescribed for weight loss.Phentermine, an appetite suppressant, was approved for use in 1959 and is the most commonly prescribed prescription because it costs less than the other major drugs. Some users report it can make them feel jumpy.Xenical inhibits lipase -- an enzyme that breaks down fat in the intestines. Xenical decreases the amount of fat your body absorbs from food by 30%, which results in lower calorie intake. But all that undigested fat can make sudden, unwelcome appearances in the form of diarrhea.Meridia increases levels of brain chemicals that help reduce appetite. Appetite-suppressants work by increasing serotonin or catecholamine chemicals that alter mood and appetite through means that are not well understood. Since Meridia can raise blood pressure and heart rate, people with any kind of heart disease shouldn't take this drug.