- Published on Thursday, 25 October 2012 14:35
- Posted by Vicki Mitchem
Rapid safe weight loss in a pharmacy setting with VLCD programmes monitored by healthcare professionals, are documented by audits using Lipotrim’s unique patient tracker software.
The diet can produce weight loss at sufficient rates to result in sustainable remission of type 2 diabetes and benefit to many weight related co-morbidities.
The Lipotrim weight loss programme, monitored exclusively by healthcare professionals has been in extensive use in the UK for more than 25 years. A rapidly expanding network of over 2000 pharmacies currently offer the VLCD service and the unique Lipotrim Patient Tracker computer software for managing patient records has permitted continuous auditing of results and detailed evaluation of population subsets.
Overweight or obese people requesting the programme are assessed for suitability on the basis of initial BMI and a detailed medical history. Those requiring medical cooperation, such as those with type 2 diabetes or medicated hypertension make suitable arrangements with their GP prior to dieting or are excluded. Those with contraindicated conditions, such as insulin dependant diabetes or pregnancy are excluded from the programme.
Suitable patients follow a strict regime of total food replacement using nutrient complete formulas, essentially very low fat enteral feeds, with adequate water intake and black tea or coffee permitted in addition. Appropriate prescribed medications are continued as well. No other foods, beverages or supplements are permitted.
Dieters are monitored and weights recorded weekly – only 1 week’s supply of formulas can be obtained at each visit and obvious non-compliance is corrected or the dieter is offered alternative weight loss advice.
Records are maintained on the Patient Tracker programme.
The extreme flexibility of the Patient Tracker software, in addition to documenting and visualising each individual patient’s experience, allows for presentation of evidence of the weight loss achievements of cohorts of patients. This has become important for commissioning and the ability of grouping patients from an individual surgery permits documentation to the surgery of the collective progress of their patients,
Results from thousands of patients’ audits document that the percentage of initial weight lost generally averages well over 5% and in most cases over 10%. Successful weight loss is found even in the extremely high BMI patients, who are usually refractory to weight management attempts, causing many people to believe that the only option for these people is expensive and invasive bariatric surgery.
Patients with high BMI, have to deal with many difficult issues and for these people, standard approaches to weight loss have often been ineffective. They fail because they all are attempting to control addictive behaviour while permitting continued use of the substance of abuse. It does not work with alcohol or tobacco. It does not work with drugs and it rarely works with food. For seriously overweight people, the most effective treatment is to totally stop the substance of abuse, which is why a Total Food Replacement programme is so much more effective.
Obtaining the required complement of nutrients from common foods requires many more Calories than is consistent with rapid and substantial weight loss. The advantage of a Total Food Replacement programme is that nutrition is provided by a nutritionally complete formula, allowing the dieter to remove the addictive substances (food) from his or her life while the weight is lost and the medical consequences of the excess weight are relieved..
The value of a total food replacement formula programme in the treatment of overweight and obesity should now be obvious. TOTAL Food Replacement is arguably the only means by which those who are subject to food abuse may avoid the stimulus that perpetuates their weight problem.