How to Understand Obesity

Transcript Hi. My name is Dr. Angela Glasnapp and I’m a bariatric surgeon at Somerset Medical Center. My practice is New Jersey Bariatric Center and we have three locations in New Jersey. One in Somerville, New Jersey, one in Springfield, and one in Hoboken. Myself and the other three surgeons in our practice are all …

Transcript Obesity is a serious medical condition of excess fat storage. It’s defined as a person having a BMI of 30 or greater. BMI, or body mass index, is a number that is calculated by dividing your weight in kilograms by your height in meters squared. Obesity begins at a BMI of 30 and 40 …

Transcript Immediately after bariatric surgery, you will be put on, most likely, a liquid diet for a few weeks. After that, your surgeon will gradually advance you to soft foods and then regular textured foods. Once you’re able to eat regular textured foods, here are some things that you should probably try to avoid, initially, …

Transcript What foods should you eat after bariatric surgery? I think the most important part of any meal after bariatric surgery should be protein. Your body needs protein to exist and to carry out its activities of daily living and really to just move and breathe. You want to make sure you’re getting in enough …

Transcript Let’s talk a little bit about nutrition, and how we can help change your lifestyle to help you lose weight. First thing is, examine your diet and see if you drink liquid calories. What are liquid calories? Well, things like soda, juice, and alcohol. There’s no reason why you should be drinking many calories, …

Transcript What are calories? Well, a calorie is energy and a calorie is defined as being, the amount of heat required to raise one kilogram of water by 1 degree Celsius. Basically, all food that you eat has calories and not all calories are equal, however. The foods that you eat trigger different hormonal responses …

Transcript If you’re trying to lose weight, exercise is very important. First, before you start any exercise regimen, speak with your doctor and make sure that you’re healthy enough to go ahead and exercise. The next thing though is choose exercises that you enjoy, because if you consider it torture, you’re obviously not going to …

Transcript So one of the hardest things is not just losing weight, but actually keeping that weight off. Here are some tips on how to keep that weight off. Number one is, make sure that whatever changes you’ve made in your life to lose weight in the first place, are changes that you can live …

Transcript Dieting should not slow down your metabolism. But if you trick your body into thinking you’re starving itself, it will. Here are some tips to help keep your metabolism when you’re trying to eat healthier. First, don’t skip meals. Especially breakfast. If you don’t eat breakfast and you don’t eat until lunch time, your …

Transcript We know that obesity and diabetes are closely related. In fact about 85% of type 2 diabetics are obese. One option to help lose weight is weight loss surgery and weight loss surgery or bariatric surgery has been shown to positively affect diabetes and in many cases to actually cure diabetes in some people. …

Transcript Obesity and diabetes are many times interrelated. Approximately 85% of type 2 diabetics are obese. Diabetes is a disease of sugar metabolism so your body actually, in type 2 diabetes has a resistance to insulin. Insulin is the hormone that helps to control the sugar levels in your body. Obesity is a major risk …

Transcript I think a lot of people don’t realize that obesity is actually a risk factor for cancer. Being obese puts you at a higher risk of developing certain cancers like breast cancer, ovarian cancer, prostate, colon and even pancreatic cancer to name a few. The higher your BMI actually, the more likely you are …

Transcript Let’s talk a little bit about obesity and pregnancy. First of all, it’s important to know that obesity does affect fertility, so if you are obese and you’re having difficulty getting pregnant, maybe talk to your doctor about ways that you can try to lose weight and, hopefully, improve your fertility. With that being …

Transcript Many people don’t realize that obesity can affect your fertility. This is true for both men and women. Let’s talk about women first. In women, obesity is associated many times with something called Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome or PCOS. Obesity is also associated with irregular menstrual periods, which can be secondary to anovulation or not …

Transcript It’s important to realize several psychological factors influence overeating. Emotional eating is something that is very common in my patients. For example, many people will eat because they’re feeling stressed or they’re feeling depressed, and many people use food as something to help fill a certain void in their life. So its very important …

Transcript It’s important to realize that sleep is very important to maintain a healthy weight. Lack of sleep can lead to weight gain. What happens, if you’re not getting close to 8 hours of sleep per night, the hormone called cortisol increases in your blood and this hormone is responsible for storing fat. So, as …

Transcript Some medical treatments can actually lead to weight gain. One is steroids. steroids are notorious for causing weight gain in people. Another medical treatment that can lead to weight gain is Insulin and unfortunately people that are diabetic and are Insulin dependent, often end up in a viscous cycle because they are diabetic, 85 …

Transcript If you’re obese, you may be wondering “when do I have to do something about it?” or, “when does an intervention become necessary?”. And the answer is, really, now. Do something before maybe you develop other illnesses or co-morbidities that are associated with being overweight or obese, because the good news is that even …

Transcript Can you be obese, but healthy? The short answer is really no. Think about it, obesity itself is an illness so right there you already have an illness, even if you’re not necessarily on medications. Obesity means that your BMI or your body mass index is 30 or greater and just by having excess …

Transcript When you’re trying to lose weight it’s important to take a look at your lifestyle and see what behaviors you can actually modify to help you lose weight. The first thing is to make sure you’re eating three meals a day. Skipping meals can actually cause you to gain weight, because your body goes …

Transcript I’d like to talk to you for a moment about lifestyle changes that are necessary to help overcome obesity. A common misconception is that diet is what is necessary to lose weight. And while that is true, when you say that you’re on a diet, it automatically implies that there’s going to be a …

Transcript Let’s talk about the health benefits of weight loss surgery. This is actually one of my favorite topics and why I love what I do. With one surgery, we can potentially cure several illnesses. We can even potentially have you stop taking many of your medications. For example, after weight loss surgery and after …

Transcript What’s the best way to pick a bariatric surgeon? I’ll tell you a few tips. Number one, you want to make sure that your surgeon is fellowship trained. This means that after he or she completed a five year general surgery residency, they then went on to complete a one-year fellowship or specialty training …

Transcript Many people wonder if gastric bypass surgery or weight loss surgery, in general, is covered by their insurance. The answer is most insurances do cover gastric bypass. However, there are some requirements. Number one, you do have to meet a certain weight requirement, so your BMI, or body mass index, must be at least …

Transcript Prior to bariatric surgery it’s important that you speak with a nutritionist, and discuss your current diet and changes that are necessary to be made, prior to and after surgery. For example, your nutritionist will meet with you and ensure that you’re eating three meals a day, make sure your trying to avoid liquid …

Transcript Before undergoing bariatric surgery, there will be certain tests that your surgeon will want to run to make sure that you’re healthy enough to undergo a major operation. Some tests, the blood work, they’ll check your blood count, your basic chemistries, your thyroid functions. Also, your vitamin levels will be checked prior to surgery …

Transcript We’re going to talk a little bit about gastric banding or lap band versus gastric bypass. Both are surgical treatments for obesity. Both surgeries are restrictive, meaning that your stomach is made smaller or a device is used, in the case of the lap band, to make your brain think your stomach is smaller …

Transcript Sleeve gastrectomy is a weight loss surgery where we remove approximately 75 percent of your stomach. We essentially make your stomach from the size of a football to the size of a banana. And so, this weight loss surgery works for two reasons. One, obviously you’re able to eat much less because your stomach …

Transcript Lap-Band, or gastric band surgery is a sugary where we implant a silicone device around the top portion of your stomach. There is a balloon that sits on the top part of your stomach, which is connected to a tubing. The tubing is then connected to a port that’s sutured or sewed to your …

Transcript Let’s talk a little bit about the complications of gastric bypass surgery. Before I do that though, I do want to stress that gastric bypass has become a very safe surgery, and most likely the risks of being obese outweigh the risks of the surgery. When we talk about the potential risks of gastric …

Transcript Gastric bypass is one type of weight loss surgery. In gastric bypass, what we do is we cut your stomach and make it into a small pouch. The pouch then becomes about the size of a small egg. In addition, we also cut your small intestines and reroute them, and reconnect them to that …

Transcript Let’s talk about many of the questions that I get from my patients when they come to my office. One of the first questions people ask me is do I qualify for surgery? How much do I have to weigh? For weight loss surgery there is a weight requirement. The insurance companies and your …

Transcript Bariatric surgery includes surgeries like the gastric band, the sleeve gastrectomy, or the gastric bypass. All three surgeries work well, however you need to be comfortable with choosing the surgery that is going to work for you. So some things that you might want to consider when trying to decide which surgery is best …

Transcript Let’s talk about the different surgical options to help treat obesity. There are three surgery options that I’m going to talk about. The first one is the gastric band. The second one is the sleeve gastrectomy, and the third one is gastric bypass. All three surgeries are restrictive. What this means is that it …

Transcript Let’s talk about the different treatment options for obesity. We’ll talk about, first diet and exercise, we can talk about medications, and lastly, surgery as an option to treat obesity. Diet and exercise is a means to lose weight. However, for many people it’s very difficult, not only to lose the weight, but to …

Transcript It’s very important to realize that obesity is an illness that affects you from your head to your toes, meaning that it really does affect every part of your body. Obesity leads to an increased risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, also it can lead to increased risk of diabetes. In addition, liver …

Transcript Obesity is a disease of excess fat storage, but people store fat differently. Central obesity, or obesity around your mid-abdomen is actually the most dangerous kind. So one thing we like to do in the office is measure a patient’s waist circumference, to see if they’re at risk for some of the other illnesses …

Transcript Obesity is a very serious medical condition of excess fat storage, and with it come several risk factors. I think it’s important to realize that obesity affects every part of your body from your head to your feet. For example, if you wake up with headaches every day, it could be because of your …

Transcript Obesity is a multi-factorial illness, what this means is that there are several causes of obesity. Let’s first talk about genetics, there is a genetic component to being obese. Unfortunately there’s nothing we can do about that though. The good news is that there are other causes of obesity which we can control. One …

Transcript When you eat food, all food has calories. Calorie is a unit of energy, so when you eat food digestion begins in your stomach and then your intestines, and your body absorbs the nutrients that it needs in to your bloodstream. Throughout the day, your body will use those calories to help everyday functions …

Transcript BMI or body mass index is a number that we calculate to determine of you are a healthy weight. BMI is calculated by taking your weight in kilograms and dividing it by your height in meters squared. This is obviously not a number that we’re able to calculate in our heads, so there are …

Transcript Body mass index, or BMI as its frequently referred to, is a number that’s calculated by dividing your weight in kilograms, by your height in meters squared. Obviously, this isn’t a number that any of us can calculate in our heads, so you can go online, Google BMI calculator. You plug in your height …

Transcript Obesity is an illness of excess fat storage. Morbid obesity is also a disease of excess fat storage, but it’s when your BMI is 40 or greater. So in order to calculate your BMI, you’re going to divide your weight in kilograms, by your height in meters squared. This is not a number that …

Transcript I’d like to talk about being obese versus being overweight. One way to figure it out is to calculate your BMI. BMI, or body mass index is the number that is calculated by dividing your weight in kilograms, by your height in meters squared. There are charts online that you can look up and …

Transcript I think it’s important to realize that Obesity is a disease. It’s a lifelong progressive disease of excess fat storage. And obesity is defined as being about 30 percent over your ideal body weight or about 100 pounds overweight. In order to figure out what your ideal body weight is, you can look it …