How to Lose 50 Pounds and Keep Them Off | Arya Sharma | TEDxUAlberta

I practice medicine at a center that specializes in the treatment of obesity. The people who come to see us have all struggled with excess weight for a long time. Many of

them

have serious health problems. They have diabetes. They have heart disease. They have bone problems. and joints and that is different from one to another, but there is one thing that all our patients have in common and that is that they have all lost weight before, not once or twice, over and over again, because every time they

lose

weight, the The weight just comes back and no matter how hard they struggle no matter what diet they follow no matter what exercise program they follow no matter if they

lose

weight fast or slowly the way it always comes back and so on When I see

them

they feel like they are the biggest losers and me they asked Dr.

Sharma there must be something wrong with me there must be something wrong with my metabolism every time I lose weight it comes back now I know my patients are not alone with this problem let me ask you if anyone here has ever lost weight come on. Honestly, yeah, anyone put it back on? Yes, it's almost everyone because we know that out of 20 people who

keep

going and lose weight, no matter how they do it, 19 are going to gain weight back, so the question is. Why is this so difficult? You know why losing weight is one thing, but

keep

ing it off is where the real struggle is?

Now we understand that there is a complex neurobiology that regulates our body weight and we understand that this complex neurobiology also defends us against weight loss and it's complex, you know, this is not calories in calories out, it's six. I'm talking about physiology and the way I think about physiology is that your biology messes with physics, so for a long time I was looking for a way to explain it. this for my patients, how can I get my patients to understand what they're really dealing with every time they go out and try to lose weight? That's what I want to show you today.

I want to show you what it really takes to lose 50

pounds

. and keep them off and to help me with this demonstration I would like to welcome Alex to the stage and she just volunteered before my talk she doesn't know what she's in for give her a warm welcome okay step forward she's good. Alex, this is what I want you to do. I want you to take this end of this band and the other end so you can hold it like this, okay, why don't you do that? Okay, yeah, maybe a little. a little optimistic, okay, one more, okay, okay, and I want you to hold it like this, okay, okay, very good, I want you to imagine that this is Alex's weight and it's 250

pounds

and I don't have idea how Alex got to be 250. pounds this could be genetics maybe she is an emotional leader maybe she has a stressful job maybe it's not enough slave culture shift work maybe and I hope it's not ptsd depression maybe Maybe Alex is on medication that makes him hungry all the time it doesn't matter because anyone who has gained weight will have the exact same problem that Alex is facing, so Alex, are you ready to lose 50 pounds, yeah, great, so I'm sure you'll have a couple of suggestions.

For her, one of the things she could do to try to lose some weight is exercise, how much exercise do you think, what is your recommendation, 30 minutes, whatever, you can do 30 minutes a day, okay, then she will start doing 30 minutes of exercise a day and guess what is starting to get here what else, poor me, eat healthy, okay, maybe reduce your calories a little, maybe reduce our calories by 500, that's good, that's working What else could I do to sleep better? Yeah, we learn a lot about sleep, look, she's getting thin right there, she's losing weight right in front of our eyes and you know what I look at, I say, you know, maybe it's 50 pounds, so what does Alex have to do now to maintain the weight now you just need? keep pulling on the elastic band, that's fine, so you keep falling and that's how you're going to keep the weight off because here's the thing, look, I don't know how she got to 250 pounds, it doesn't matter, but she faces the same challenge that faces anyone who has gained weight and is going to try to lose it because what you are seeing here, that tension in that elastic band, is your body trying to regain the weight and the body has many The tricks of the neurophysiology of the What we're talking about increases your appetite, slows down your metabolism, and in fact even your muscles become more fuel efficient, so now that you've lost weight you can do the same amount of exercise but burn fewer calories, so the tension increases.

Look, that's just her body warning that calories want to regain body weight and she's going to have to keep working at it and she's doing a great job, we're just going to let her stay there and keep going because you see, that's the problem. The problem is that right now there are about a billion people in this world, men, women, children living with obesity and we don't have a cure now. I wish we had some way to prevent this from happening in the first place, but if we do, prevention still doesn't help the people who have the problem and for all the people who have the problem, you know they're going to try to lose weight.

I'm going to diet, they're going to exercise and most of them I'm going to put Alex's weight back. How are you fine. I know this is depressing. Now you guys are getting depressed. You know my patients get very depressed when I tell them this and I get very depressed, but when I look at this, you know? You know I just saw another chronic illness. Now look at my patients with diabetes. You know they come in and just gain some of that weight back. You know, my diabetes patients come. You know we started them and they died.

They exercise. to take your medications, you know, check your blood sugar levels, go for regular checkups and guess what blood sugar levels drop and the risk of heart disease and all the complications. They go down, it's great, but guess what happens when you go off your diet, guess what happens when you stop exercising or stop taking your medications or stop coming to visit us your blood sugar goes back up all the problems come back I see that my patients have high blood pressure, it's the same story, you know? They come in, they start their low salt diet, they start their exercise program, they take their medications, they monitor their blood pressure levels, they come in for regular visits, we lower their blood pressure, it greatly reduces their risk of heart attacks and strokes, now guess what? it happens when you stop exercising when they stop exercising they die they stop taking their medications guess what the risk goes up again that's a chronic disease every chronic disease you stop the treatment that's what happens the disease comes back and the obesity you stop the diet you stop doing exercise you stop taking your medications that get rid of bariatric surgery, guess what weight comes back and that's exactly why the Canadian Medical Association and the American Medical Association have come out and said that once you have obesity you have to consider it as something chronic. illness because it behaves like a chronic illness is not about shame or guilt, it is about accepting the fact that the problem you are facing is like the same problems that anyone who has a chronic illness faces and therefore, When I tell my patients and What I want to tell you today, if you or someone you care about is obese, tell them to seek professional help, tell them to seek help from a doctor, from a nurse, from a dietician, from anyone who is trained as a healthcare professional to manage chronic diseases, because the principles of chronic disease management are well known are established patient education self-care regular monitoring regular check-ups developing a realistic treatment plan that you can actually follow and we do it for patients who have diabetes we do it for people living with heart disease we do it for people living with high blood pressure and that, ladies and gentlemen, is exactly what we should do for people living with obesity.

Thank you very much and give him a great hand, thank you.