Delhi: Covid-19 puts mortal fear in obese, raises awareness for weight loss

NEW DELHI: People have become more motivated to stay fit and healthy after pandemic put a spotlight on risks of obesity and related conditions such as diabetes that proved deadly for severe Covid-19 patients.
Doctors admit that post Covid-19 many overweight people are more focused to loose weight and obese are even willing to undergo the knife for bariatric surgeries to lose weight.Ill effects of life style diseases have turned people to virtual fitness coaches through online apps to get custom made exercises and diet schedules to reduce weight.
Prof Naval Kishore Vikram in department of medicine who is also incharge of obesity and metabolic disorders clinic at AIIMS, said that after pandemic number of people visiting the clinic have increased to 10-15% in the age group of 12 to 30 years. “Obesity was rising pre pandemic too due to sedentary lifestyle but after seeing severe illness from Covid-19 in obese and overweight people, everyone got conscious about their body weight,” Prof Vikram said, adding that now people want to control their weight.
"After anthropometric measurements and body composition, we interview a person and after detailed analysis, we modify their diet and include some physical activity after consulting with a team of dietician and physiotherapist. If required, we add medicines too," he said, adding that if it doesn’t work then we ask them to consult Bariatric surgeons.
Dr Sandeep Aggarwal, Bariatric surgeon at AIIMS said that there is a drastic change in people’s attitude after pandemic. "Pre-covid 30 patients visited the hospital per month and of these 50 percent just for opinion and counselling while post pandemic 40 new patients visit AIIMS and of these 30 are willing to go under knife to get rid of obesity," he said, adding that people from 18-65 years of age group visit for conducting elective surgery.
Echoing similar views, Director and head of metabolic and bariatric surgery in PSRI hospital, Dr Sumeet Shah, said that mindset of many people has changed and they have become aware about consequences of obesity after pandemic. “Those who were reluctant earlier, are now also ready to go for surgery but motivation and counselling are main aspect of this surgery,” he said, adding that sometimes cost factor is a major issue as such surgeries cost between 3.5 to 6 lakh depending upon the procedure.
Dr Vivek Bindal, head of bariatric surgery, Max Hospital, Vaishali, also said that they had witnessed increase in number of surgeries from 5-6 per month during pre Covid-19 days to 10-15 now.
Workout and dietary modification under experts guidance have also jumped manifold post pandemic. Some online apps including FITTR have increased their clientele as many people prefer to take guidance online and control their diet with the help of on-board nutritionist and coach. Co-founder and director of FITTR app Bala Krishna Reddy Dabbedi said that various packages are available as per the client requirements and wonderful outcomes have forced many others to join the app.