[Diet treatment of obesity--weight-loss stage and weight-maintenance stage]

Dietetic treatment of obesity occurs in two phases one of weight reduction and one of stabilisation of the reduced weight. Results of the first phase are marked mainly by reduction of calories (quantitative aspect) and not by the carbohydrate or fat content of the diet (qualitative aspect). This improves assessment of individual nutritional preferences and sustains the patients motivation longer. Current recommendations propose less restrictive diets, i.e. 500 Kcal less than the daily allowance. In the second phase of stabilisation a diet rich in complete carbohydrates (> 50 of daily calories) and poor in lipids (< 30%) regulates metabolism, appetite sencurion of saturation and thermogenesis favorably. Such a diet seems to permit a prolonged stabilisation of weight, an important criterion for successful treatment of obesity. A diet rich in carbohydrates and poor in lipids symbolized by a nutritional pyramid is at the same time the basis for actual recommendations for the entire population.