In respect of diet, check the ingredients on food products and avoid anything containing items you wouldn’t normally use in your own cooking. These foods are typically highly processed, meaning your body expends little energy digesting them. As a result, calories can enter the bloodstream too quickly for the body to manage effectively, increasing the likelihood that excess energy will be stored as fat.
A diabetic diet can be a useful starting point for more information
You may benefit from referring yourself to “Healthy Cornwall”.
“Couch to 5k” is an NHS initiative which has proven very successful on a national scale, and you can find the detail on how to engage with it by following this link
Orlistat is a medication which stops the body absorbing fat which, if consumed, results in diarrhoea. Please let the practice know if you’d like to try it.
There is a 12 week programme for weight management which is delivered in local leisure centres which you can be referred for.
Healthwise – Better Leisure Centres
We can provide onward NHS referral (to Oviva) for consideration of weight loss medications like Wegovy (semaglutide) for patients with high BMI or weight-related comorbidities who have not achieved weight loss through community services over a 2-year period. This NHS offer has strict eligibility criteria (listed below). If you feel you meet these criteria and medications are something you would like to consider, please contact us.
Eligibility criteria for medication:
1. The patient has a BMI ≥ 50 kg/m2*
OR
2. The patient has a BMI of at least 40 kg/m2* and has engaged with community weight services over a 2-year period but has failed to achieve or maintain weight loss goals.
OR
3. The patient has a BMI of at least 35 kg/m2* and has at least 4 out 5 of the following weight related co-morbidities and has engaged with community weight services over a 2-year period but has failed to achieve or maintain weight loss goals
Complete list of co-morbidities – please indicate relevant below:
a. Established cardiovascular disease
b. Type 2 diabetes
c. Hypertension
d. Idiopathic intracranial hypertension
e. Obstructive sleep apnoea
f. Non- alcohol steatohepatitis (NASH)
*There is a tolerance unit of BMI 2.5 on each element of the criteria above in relation to at-risk groups that have higher obesity prevalence rates particularly those with black African or Caribbean and South Asian origin.
If you would prefer to consider NHS bariatric surgery for weight loss, eligibility criteria must be met. This surgery and follow up is undertaken at Royal Cornwall Hospital, Truro.
Eligibility criteria for surgery:
1. The patient has a BMI of 50kgs/m2 or more, surgery should be considered as a first line treatment intervention OR
2. The patient has a BMI of 40kgs/m2 or more, or a BMI of 35-40kgs/m2 plus other obesity-related complications that could be improved with weight loss.
Example comorbidities:
· Type 2 diabetes
· Cardiovascular disease
· Hypercholesterolaemia on treatment
· obstructive sleep apnoea
· non-alcoholic fatty liver disease with or without steatohepatitis
· hypertension (including idiopathic intracranial hypertension)
· osteoarthritis of weight bearing joints
3. AND The patient agrees to the necessary long-term follow up after surgery (for example, lifelong annual reviews).
(Consider referral for people of South Asian, Chinese, other Asian, Middle Eastern, Black African or African–Caribbean background using a lower BMI threshold (reduced by 2.5 kg/m2), to account for the fact that these groups are prone to central adiposity and their cardiometabolic risk occurs at lower BMI.)
Please consider your options and contact the practice online if you’d like help with any of the offers.