Yes they are, according to Joseph Proietto, a professor of medicine at the University of Melbourne.
In the article “Treatments needed to tackle obesity crisis: Experts” that has been picked up by British and Indian news aggregators but apparently hasn’t yet been widely distributed state-side, Proietto claims that lifestyle changes can only achieve so much before the body adapts. Therefore, it is “absolutely essential” to develop drugs to help people keep the weight off, he is quoted as saying.
As an athlete, I know that unless I change up my training regimen now and then, my performance will plateau. Ole Albert Einstein said it well: “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
Some speculate that diets don’t work because they are temporary measures to reach a specific target, but aren’t necessarily designed for long-term impact. The notion that the body adapts is also a possibility: what initially helps us to lose weight will decrease in effectiveness as our body becomes used to the new intake and accommodates for it. As with physical activity: as we undergo physical conditioning, activities that used to tax our muscles become easier, and we see fewer results. We then need to increase the intensity or duration of an activity to continue to see gains.
What do you think? Is varying our diet and incorporating different types of physical activity enough? Or do we need a little help to stay healthy?
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