The Challenges of Weight Loss

The western diet and the tendency to obesity are involved in a lot of problems of the musculoskeletal system.  Excess weight bears down on joints and the extra fat tissue carries an additional inflammatory load, further straining joints and other organs. Obesity is also associated with greater risks when people have joint replacement surgery. All of this means that orthopaedic surgeons are quite interested in helping patients to achieve weight loss. There are many approaches to weight loss but, as the graphic below stresses, there are pitfalls and structure to the process is important.   In particular there is the old adage that you "cannot outrun a bad diet" - the calories that you put in are always more important than exercise to burn them off, particularly if sore joints limit your ability to exercise.

See Renaissance Periodization for further information.