The words used on this site, defined plainly. Most of them are the names of tests a first consultation should arrange, because knowing what was and was not checked is the fastest way to tell a clinical assessment from a sales appointment.
Also known as: Doctor-led weight loss, Medically supervised weight loss.
A weight programme for which a registered clinician takes responsibility: they take the history, order and interpret the investigations, exclude other explanations and put their name to the plan. The phrase is used loosely in advertising, so it is worth asking who the clinician is and what they actually do.
Source: www.nice.org.uk
The clinical banding of body mass index above a defined threshold, read alongside waist measurement and ethnicity because the same index carries different risk across populations. It matters because it decides which services are open to you rather than because it describes how you look.
Source: www.nice.org.uk
Also known as: Glycated haemoglobin.
A blood test giving an average of blood sugar control over roughly the previous three months, rather than a snapshot. It is the standard way of identifying prediabetes and diabetes, and it is one of the measures that improves earliest when weight comes down.
Source: www.nhs.uk
Also known as: Non-diabetic hyperglycaemia.
Blood sugar control that is above the normal range and below the threshold for diabetes. It is common, it usually causes no symptoms at all, and it is one of the findings a weight assessment is looking for because it is frequently reversible.
Source: www.nhs.uk
Also known as: TFT.
A blood test measuring the hormones that set the body's metabolic rate. An underactive thyroid causes weight gain among other symptoms, is straightforward to identify and to treat, and is one of the first things a weight assessment should exclude rather than assume.
Source: www.nhs.uk
Also known as: Cholesterol test.
A blood test measuring the fats circulating in the blood, including the two cholesterol fractions and triglycerides. It is measured at a weight assessment because the pattern often shifts with weight and because it feeds into cardiovascular risk.
Source: www.nhs.uk
Also known as: LFT.
A blood test reflecting how the liver is working. It matters at a weight assessment because fat accumulation in the liver is common at higher weights, usually silent, and among the changes that respond to a relatively modest loss.
Source: www.nhs.uk
A state in which the body responds less effectively to insulin, so more of it is needed to keep blood sugar in range. It sits behind several of the findings a weight assessment looks for, and it improves with both weight loss and resistance training.
Source: www.nhs.uk
A cluster of findings that tend to travel together: raised blood pressure, raised blood sugar, an unfavourable lipid pattern and central weight. The cluster carries more risk than any single element of it, which is why an assessment looks at the set rather than at one number.
Source: www.nhs.uk
The pressure of blood against the artery walls, measured at every proper weight assessment because raised blood pressure is common, causes no symptoms, and is among the measures that improves fastest when weight comes down.
Source: www.nhs.uk
Also known as: OSA.
Repeated interruption of breathing during sleep, common at higher weights and commonly missed. It matters here in both directions: it makes weight loss considerably harder, and treating it often makes the rest of a programme work.
Source: www.nhs.uk
Also known as: Calorie deficit.
Taking in less energy than the body uses, which is the mechanism by which weight falls whatever method is applied on top of it. Every credible approach is a different way of making that gap tolerable for a particular person over a long enough period.
Source: www.nhs.uk
Also known as: RMR.
The energy the body uses at rest, which is the large majority of daily expenditure for most people. It falls as body weight falls, which is part of why loss slows and why maintenance takes deliberate effort rather than merely stopping.
Also known as: Fat-free mass.
Everything in the body other than fat, most of it muscle. Weight lost too quickly, or lost without resistance training, includes a larger share of lean mass, which lowers metabolic rate and leaves a person lighter and weaker at the same time.
Training against a load, whether weights, bands or bodyweight. It appears in a weight programme to defend lean mass during a deficit rather than to burn energy, which is a different job from cardiovascular exercise and is not interchangeable with it.
Source: www.nhs.uk
How quickly weight is coming down, generally regarded as sustainable at around half a kilogram to one kilogram a week. Faster costs more lean mass and is harder to hold. Slower is not a failure and is frequently the version that survives a year.
Source: www.nhs.uk
A named registered clinician holding responsibility for a programme and reviewing it at intervals. The phrase appears in advertising attached to arrangements ranging from close involvement to a signature, so the useful question is who sees you at each review.
Source: www.nice.org.uk
An arrangement in which a private service and your GP both hold part of your care and communicate about it. Without one, privately obtained results sit outside your medical record, which is the record that will be read by whoever treats you in ten years.
The return of lost weight after a programme ends, which is common and is largely physiological rather than a failure of will. Appetite rises and energy expenditure falls at a lower weight, and both persist, which is why maintenance needs its own plan.
Source: www.nhs.uk
Help for anyone whose relationship with food, weight or their body has become distressing or controlling, including people unsure whether it counts. Beat runs helplines in the United Kingdom and the NHS route starts with a GP. Neither runs through this site, deliberately.
Source: www.nhs.uk
The service that takes an enquiry from this site and arranges an assessment with a registered clinician. It is operated by the UNTIL group, which owns this site. Nobody here assesses or treats anybody, and no payment passes per enquiry.