Overweight and obesity is a leading concern in the world, increasing the risk of a wide range of diseases and illnesses including coronary artery disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus, high blood pressure and certain cancers.
The average life expectancy is reduced by up to nine years for an individual who is obese.
A weight loss of 5-10% in obese people can achieve significant health benefits.
Therefore, successful implementation of a weight management programme can have significant and positive impacts on resources and health.
Our Weight Management Programme is a comprehensive, multidisciplinary, coordinated, and closely-supervisedprogramme.
The programme comprises consultations with an assigned sport and exercise medicine (SEM) physician and a dietitian, and supervised gym sessions with an exercise physiologist. Your SEM physician will screen you for medical and musculoskeletal conditions, mutually agree on goals, and customise a dietary plan and exercise programme for you.
Definition of obesity in adults
Comorbidities that can be improved with weight loss / diet / exercise
BMI > 23 (overweight and obese) without comorbidities
OR
With comorbidities other than those listed for referral to the Metabolic Clinic
Has one or more of the conditions below:
Considering surgery and meets the following criteria:
1. BMI
> 37.5 or > 32.5 with DM / high blood pressure / OSA / fatty liver / hyperlipidaemia / OA knee requiring total knee replacement
AND
2. Weight loss failure
Lost < 5% weight in 3 months or regained weight or unable to exercise
The Weight Management Programme is a closely-supervised programme over six months. Not everyone needs close supervision, and some individuals can lose weight on their own without outside support. If you have attempted to lose weight but found the results unsatisfactory, or do not know where to start in making the change, then joining this programme may be a good next step.
Your SEM physician will discuss with you your weight loss targets and determine a mutually agreed target. In most cases, the weight loss target is 5-10% of your starting weight. On average, our patients lose 7.3 kg and shed 8.3 cm off their waistline by the end of our six-month programme.
Note that we report our average results – this gives you a more accurate picture, rather than selectively highlighting the results of only our star performers, which can be deceiving. The rate of weight loss is planned at 0.5 kg to 1.0 kg per week. Most importantly, we equip you with effective weight management tools so that youcontinue to lose weight and effectively maintain your weight loss after the programme.
We run a hospital-based weight management programme that is medical evidence-based and designed to achieve fat loss safely and effectively. Being a mainstream healthcare institution, we audit and publish our results, and report them accurately, rather than cite anecdotal results.
Being a medically-based institutional programme, the Weight Management Programme is designed to handle difficult and complex cases which commercial gyms may not be equipped to manage. The programme starts with a medical screening performed by our SEM physicians, to identify existing diseases or injuries.
Our SEM physicians will ensure that your medical conditions will be taken into consideration when diet and exercise are prescribed. Exercises prescribed will be individualised to minimise injury risk and impact to the injured part of the body.
Our programme requires a commitment on your part. This includes a time commitment, especially for the exercise sessions.
Your exercise prescription will be individually-tailored but typically, our patients are expected to exercise 5-7 days a week, up to an hour per session, although this can be divided throughout a day. You will exercise at our gym during supervised sessions with the exercise physiologist. In between these sessions, you are expected to exercise at your own home, gym or neighbourhood.
Generally, we do not use weight loss drugs as a first-line treatment for obesity. Our focus is on the three pillars of weight loss, namely diet, exercise, and increased incidental daily activities.
For patients who lose weight but hit a plateau after some months, we may selectively introduce weight loss drugs after discussion with patients as an adjunct to our three pillars. The majority (80-90%) of our patients go through the whole programme successfully without having to take any weight loss drugs.
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