Question

Mike and Jim are brothers. Mike: 24 year male; moderately active Weight: 85 kg Height: 1.78 m Jim: Mikes older brother; inactive Weight: 153 kg Height: 1.83 m Family History: Their parents, along with most other members of their family, are overweight and have hypertension. Both were overweight children. Lifestyle, daily routine and eating habit Mike: In advertising. Plays on companies soccer team, practices 1 day/week. Jim: High School teacher, most of day spent sitting Mike and Jim have similar food preferences and love old-fashioned eating: bacon and eggs, ham and cheese, meat and potatoes, and eat some vegetables. Both love snacking on milk and biscuits. Mike and Jim (who is reluctant) challenge each other to lose20 kg in the next 10 weeks. Weight loss Strategies Mike increases his exercise and tries diet pills (over-the-counter) and dieters tea, but have adverse side effects. He sees a doctor for prescription weight loss drugs. JimBefore attempting to change his activity level or trying natural diet products, he investigates stomach reduction in size by surgical stapling as an option. The brothers have a long talk and decide they should change their diets and eating habits to obtain healthier, more long-term goals. 1. Losing 20 kg in 10 weeks is not realistic. A more appropriate goal would be to lose 10 per cent of body weight in 6 months (24 weeks). How much weight should Jim and Mike aim to lose? 2. As children, Mike and Jim did not eat any differently from other children, but gained more weight than them. Why might this be? 3. While growing up, Mike and Jim were overweight. How could this affect their current weights? 4. At first, both brothers set unrealistic goals, something that often leads to yo-yo dieting. Explain why this is detrimental to one's health. 5. Mike initially tried St John's wortand dieter's tea, but experienced unpleasant effects. What are these effects and why did they occur? What about the St John's wortcould be especially dangerous? 6. Jim did not want to waste his time with conventional weight-loss methods and immediately considered surgery. Calculate Jim's and Mike's BMIS. Based on these numbers, why is Jim a more suitable candidate for this procedure than Mike? 7. Do you think surgery is a wise choice for either of the brothers? Why or why not? 8. What behavioural changes do both Jim and Mike need to make in order to control their weight?

Answer 1

1. This is true, losing 20 kgs in 10 weeks is unrealistic as it causes much harm to the body.

Losing 10 percent of the weight is realistic.

Mike is 85 kgs and the 10 percent of the weight if he loses, comes out to be 76.5 kgs.

And Jim is 153 kgs and the 10 percent of the weight if he loses, comes out to be 137.7 kgs.

2. Everyone has a different metabolism. Both Mike and Jim have same eating habits but still, they have a vast difference in their weights, this is because of the BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate).

Mike has faster metabolic rate as compared to Jim.

3. Mike and Jim initially were overweight but over time, Mike's lifestyle changed to moderately active and Jim got sedentary lifestyle, that is what led to their current weight profile.

4. Unrealistic goals are first of all, unreal as they are short term and cause damage to the body from within.

Yo yo diet is usually seen between people and they tend to gain weight as they come back to normal lifestyle. Because the yo yo diet plan can't be followed for lifetime.

Besides that, some organs are dependent on internal fat and the diets low in fat or zero in fat, causes those organs to slow down.

Keto diet is another diet, which leads lower hypertension and fainting, making inner organs weak and leading to zero strength.

5. Unpleasant effects of the St. John's dieters tea are nervousness, headache, diarrhoea, dizziness, rashes, insomnia, dementia and sometimes, bipolar disorder.

St. John wort can cause dementia in Alzheimer's disease and worsens many of the brain diseases, this is where it is dangerous.

6.BMI is calculated by the weight divided by the square of the height of an individual.

Mike's BMI is 26.5, which comes under the overweight category.

Jim's BMI is 45.7, which comes under obese.

Jim has more need to lose weight as his metabolism is slower than Mike and he is into the obese category.

BMI more than 40 are the preferable ones for the Bariatric surgery, i.e weight loss surgery.

7. Jim's idea of surgery is a wise choice but Mike can control his weighy by healthy lifestyle, caloric deficit and exercise.

8. Caloric deficit is the key. This is the only lifestyle, they have to make and with proper nutrition. Avoiding sugar and processed foods also helps in weight loss.