There may be more myths and misunderstandings about obesity than about any other major health epidemic. Americans are constantly besieged with faulty or incomplete weight-loss information--some of it from mainstream sources. To lose weight, we are advised to avoid entire food categories (such as carbohydrates or fats) or to eat only one food category (proteins, for instance). And every new fad diet is accompanied by an avalanche of new products and marketing hype as companies try to cash in on Americans' desperate desire to slim down. The result is a stream of conflicting information that leaves many people confused.

Worse yet, none of it seems to be working. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) estimate that more than half the adult population of the United States is overweight (defined as a body mass index [BMI] of 25 to 30). A significant number of these people are obese (defined as a BMI greater than 30). The obesity epidemic is even beginning to affect children, whose obesity rates have doubled in the past two decades (NIH 2005). And instead of declining, obesity rates are rising, along with the frequency of conditions that are closely associated with obesity, such as type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome.

The government's answer to the growing epidemic of obesity has been to recommend more exercise and a balanced diet. While there is no doubt these strategies are important, they also display an incomplete understanding of the biological and hormonal changes that underlie obesity among aging adults. The fact is that as we age, we undergo physiological changes that encourage weight gain. These include hormonal changes and alterations in the way our bodies process nutrients.

We believe that, in addition to a sensible, balanced diet and exercise, the only way to successfully lose weight is to address the underlying hormonal imbalances that promote weight gain. Ideally, by using bioidentical hormone replacement, dieters can restore their hormonal profile to what it was at the age of 25, an age at which weight gain is less often a problem. In addition, numerous dietary nutrients have been shown to encourage weight loss. In this chapter, We present a specific plan, based on scientific literature that will help aging people lose weight.