Abstract

The risk of complications of obesity is proportional to body mass index and is higher in severe or morbid obesities and when abdominal or visceral fat is predominant. In Chile the prevalence of obesity is increasing. According to the World Health Organization, obese subjects must reduce at least a 5% of their weight to reduce the risk of complications. Although this amount of reduction is seldom achieved with non pharmacological treatments, better results are obtained with multidisciplinary/ approaches that include a medical, psychosocial and laboratory assessment, to determine obesity level and different factors involved and the associated complications. In a second stage, goals of treatment are set and a personalized treatment is designed including dietary changes and physical activity. The aim is to obtain perdurable lifestyles modifications.