[Evaluation and treatment of obesity in clinical practice]

Obesity continues as before to be a widespread condition. Obesity is defined as a body weight of over 120% of the ideal weight, corresponding roughly to the 85th percentile of the weight distribution. According to the "Build Study" (1979), the ideal weight is assumed to be rather higher than formerly; in men it is 8%, in women 6% less than the so-called normal weight. The latter corresponds roughly to the average weight and is defined as: height (cm) minus 100 in kg. In obese subjects both somatic and psychological complications arise; these are related exponentially to the degree of overweight. More recent findings in the Framingham Study show that obesity leads to coronary heart disease and premature death independently of the classical risk factors. Evaluation of the patient should include a personal and familial history of the obesity, together with individual eating habits and the degree of physical activity indulged in. As assessment should be made of the body fat distribution (android or gynoid obesity); android obesity carries a relatively high risk. Complications should be looked for, together with other risk factors for arteriosclerosis. Treatment depends on the severity of the condition and on the motivation. In general, it should consist of a moderate reduction in the caloric value of the food intake together with advice on eating habits and an increase in bodily activity. Group therapy often gives good results on account of the dynamic interactions within groups. Patients with morbid obesity will profit from a very hypocaloric, "ketogenic" diet (ca. 600-700 kcal/day). One of the author's own studies showed that a very hypocaloric diet resulted in mood elevation and a reduction in the need for sleep. Conservative measures such dietary weight reduction, changes in eating habits and encouragement of bodily activity are to be preferred to surgical treatment (eg, gastric stapling). Weight reductions in hospital do not lead to a change in eating habits and are therefore of doubtful value; drug therapy as a form of long-term treatment is likewise of questionable usefulness.