FIT for a Change
Mr. Izhar Satimin first went to the doctors when he encountered a splitting pain in his right knee when playing soccer.Although they could find nothing wrong with his knee, they suspected his weight could be the culprit and referred him to the Weight Management Programme held at Alexandra Hsopital (AH)’s Health For Life Centre.
The 33-year-old, who weighed 115kg, was highly skeptical. "I thought all slimming programmes were just gimmicks. I didn’t believe they could work."
But he gave it a try anyway, Following the advice on diet and exercise, he started to see results for himself soon enough. "I was losing weight a little at a time – 1kg this week, another 1 kg the next week. That was when I started believing I can do it." As part of the six-month programme, Mr Izhar also had general health screening done, which tested him for conditions like diabetes, high cholesterol and high blood pressure. While he had none of these issues, his obesity (with a high body mass index or BMI 36) meant that he has a higher chance of such problems in future.
To keep his weight down and to ward off health complications, he continued to sticks to a low-fat diet, brisk-walked up to five times a week, and went for his weekly soccer game. He now weighs 75kg, and has a healthier BMI of 24. His knee pain is also gone.
Mr Izhar, who drives a heavy vehicle in his job, says he used to get tired easily and even tended to doze off at the wheel. "Now, I feel energetic most of the time."Being fitter and trimmer has also helped this owner of a Kawasaki Superbike perform better in his Pasir Gudang and Sepang races in Malaysia. He has even taken his bike all the way to Thailand, something he had always wanted to do.
He says, "People asked me how I lost the weight. They thought I was sick or took slimming pills. I told them it was just determination and balanced meals. But if I can do it, so can others."
What is VLCD?
Very Low Calorie Diet or VLCD, is a weight reducing meal plan that provides only 200 – 800kcal per day, with at least 1.5 – 2.5g protein per kg ideal body weight. A normal energy intake of a moderately active young adult is 3000kcal and recommended protein intake is 0.8 – 1.0g protein per kg ideal body weight.
VLCD works by inducing ketosis to promote body fat loss. VLCD is useful to reduce the weight of a "super obese" person prior to undergoing the lapbanding operation to reduce intra-operative mortality. Patients are placed on the VLCD for a minimum of six weeks as a peri-operative measure prior to lapbanding surgery.
It is important that the VLCD is done under medical supervision, mainly because most of these "super obese" patients often have co-morbidities and need titrating management of medication during the drastic reduction of calories and body weight.
In the case of our case study, it was an attempt to help a patient to lose some weight in order to reduce inter-operative mortality. Over an 11-week period, the patient was placed on a 480kcal/day VLCD and successfully lost more than 50kg.
