[Obesity in the general practice]

In the western world, the prevalence of overweight and obesity has increased significantly since the early 1980s. The association between obesity and increased morbidity and mortality is well established, but the distribution of fat determines the individual metabolic risk. Sustainable success of therapy for weight loss can be achieved only through a long-term effective lifestyle changes by the patient, which requires a multimodal therapeutic approach in which different generalists and specialists including the patient itself collaborate. No matter which treatment success can be achieved in the long term at an obese patient, an overweight patient requires a long-term multi disciplinary follow-up.