Risks of Planned Weight Loss in Obese Residents

​Although most research regarding obesity in the United States occurs in younger adults and children, most assume that as an obese population ages, aging services providers will be faced with an increasingly obese population as well and may be ill-equipped to respond, according to an article in the August 2013 Annals of Long-Term Care: Clinical Care and Aging. The authors review several issues likely to become problematic, beginning with identifying residents who are obese and estimating their daily caloric needs—areas for which there are few existing guidelines for older adults. Caregivers will also be challenged by planning controlled weight loss in situations in which it is clinically appropriate, especially given the industry’s historic focus on preventing residents from losing weight and becoming frail.