Doctors are being urged to diagnose and treat obesity at every clinic visit, the way they would any other chronic disease, according to new national guidelines.
Doctors should calculate your body mass index, a weight-to-height ratio. And if you need to lose weight, they should come up with a plan and send you for counseling, according to the guidelines, which were released Tuesday by the American Heart Association, the American College of Cardiology and the Obesity Society.
"Our recommendation is that doctors prescribe a diet to achieve reduced caloric intake as part of a comprehensive lifestyle intervention," guideline co-author Dr. Donna Ryan, a professor emeritus at Louisiana State University's Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, said during a press conference. The diet should be tailored to patient preferences and any drugs they take, she said.
According to the report, experts say doctors should use a patient's body-mass index (BMI) to determine whether a patient is obese or not. BMI is a measure of body fat based on height and weight; a BMI of 25 or more is overweight. Officials define someone with a BMI of 30 or higher as obese. A 5-foot-9 person would be obese at 203 pounds.
"BMI is a quick and easy first screening step," Ryan said. Calculating BMI at least once a year will help identify those at a higher risk of heart disease and stroke because of their weight, she added. Waist circumference is also an indicator of risk.
The guidelines were released this week by a group of medical organizations that include the American Heart Association, the American College of Cardiology and the Obesity Society.
