Diet and exercise good for weight management, obesity drugs even better

Obesity, or being overweight in simple terms, is a medical entity in itself. There are many medical conditions linked to obesity ranging from cardiovascular diseases to cancers. Modern lifestyles have led to an explosion of obesity and the accompanying ill-health. It’s no wonder the medical world is full of interventions meant to address the health menace brought about by obesity.

What we eat contributes to obesity, and a sedentary lifestyle compounds the problem. That’s why diet and exercise have been at the forefront of managing obesity. But such efforts alone haven’t yielded optimal gains. Additional efforts like surgical interventions and weight loss balloons are also needed.

What about drugs? Pills that you could swallow to help with weight have always been around. But in the recent past, anti-obesity novel medicines have made the kind of impact that has long been elusive. The effectiveness of obesity drugs has been so dramatic that pharmaceutical companies have struggled to keep up with the demand. This has led to an explosion of fake obesity drugs in the market.

There’s now a new debate about what is better, diet in combination with exercise or obesity drugs. The idealists have struggled with the hangover of diet and exercise and the long-term health benefits that are hard to argue against. But the data accrued from obesity drugs alone is unflinching. Diet and exercise aren’t better than obesity drugs in almost all outcomes of interest. The average weight loss and the durability of the weight lost are way superior with drugs than with diet and exercise. Period.

With the accruing scientific data, obesity drugs are the first-line option for dealing with obesity. They provide more sustained weight loss than any lifestyle modification. And downstream, there comes the benefit of reducing the risk of all other associated medical conditions that include heart attacks, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, strokes and much more. Even if you try the hardest with diet and exercise, you will not beat the new obesity drugs.

What does this mean to those struggling with obesity? Dietary modifications and exercise are beneficial. But the amount of lifestyle modifications required to achieve dramatic effects for the obese are often elusive. Get your doctor to recommend if drugs are required in your circumstances. Hesitating to take effective medication for grave medical conditions in the name of lifestyle modifications is an illusion.

Dr Murage is a Consultant Gynecologist and Fertility Specialist.