Ask the Doctor

Humans.

We number more than 7 billion

and yet no two of us are exactly alike.

But, despite our differences, we all have one thing in common -

our bodies.

And each of us only has one, to last us our lifetime.

But how does it actually work and how do we look after it?

Well, that's where we come in.

Meet doctors Renee and Sandro

and I'm Shalin.

We're serious medical professionals.

Most of the time.

Grr.

Regardless of what stage of life you're in,

we'll have some advice on how to look after your health...

Eww, he's pooping!

..putting our bodies to the test...

Ow!

..to find out how we can all live healthier...

Oh! ..for longer.

That's extraordinary.

In this episode, we tackle a question that's been plaguing society,

as we ask, why is it so hard to lose weight...

It's a major health issue

that will end up killing more people than wars.

..and reveal why it's even harder to keep the weight off.

It's not necessarily your fault.

My body is saying, "I want to be 50 kilos heavier."

It's like I'm fighting this constant battle.

And my endurance is tested as I'm frozen in a giant magnet

in a world-first experiment...

Here we go.

..with the hope of one day creating a pill to combat obesity.

Pretty tight in here. I feel like I'm trapped.

Why are we so overweight in the first place?

Dr Sandro is someone with a whole lot of knowledge

on the expanding problem.

Australian-born, Sandro has worked all over the world

as a medical doctor.

He's also a good Italian boy who loves his mama,

and did a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard, following his PhD.

I think that makes him Doctor Doctor Sandro.

He is internationally recognised for his work,

in both nutrition and childhood obesity.

Ugh, and he has amazing hair.

Think about this for a sec.

If you had a class of 30 students,

and one of those students was getting bad grades,

you could reasonably assume that the problem lay with that one student.

But what if 20 out of those 30 students were getting bad grades?

Surely you'd redirect your blame towards the teacher,

or the school, right?

So why is it that in our community,

where almost two-thirds of Australian adults

are overweight or obese,

we still blame the individual for their weight,

and not the society and environment they live in?

Now, I work with researchers and governments

to find ways to address growing global obesity.

And I want to show you how the health cards are stacked against many of us

in such a way that makes health increasingly beyond reach,

and obesity the path of least resistance.

Let's start by talking location, location, location.

Research tells us that your risk of being overweight changes

depending on where you live.

This is in part because of poor urban planning.

We're talking whole suburbs that lack adequate footpaths,

without places where kids can run and kick a ball,

and where parents can't find fresh food

without having to drive for miles.

Alarmingly, our country's poorest postcodes

also have 2.5 times more fast food restaurants per person

than our richest.

On top of all of this,

a lot of food advertising clearly comes with an attitude of

"Get 'em young."

Australian TV has the highest number of food ads during kids' programming

in the world,

and more than three-quarters of those ads

are for foods with low nutritional value.

However, the situation isn't hopeless.

In fact, if we can ensure

our kids develop the right eating habits early on,

we could cut obesity rates in just one single generation.

Studies show only 5% of healthier-weight kids

will grow up to become obese,

whereas up to 79% of obese kids will become overweight adults.

Now, I understand that nobody likes to be told what to drink or eat,

not by our parents, not by institutions,

and certainly not by people like me.

But aren't we already being constantly told what to eat?

So next time you hear a bold idea

that offers even a chance

of making our kids and our communities healthier,

instead of writing it off as telling us what we can or can't eat,

let's ask ourselves,

"Is this an idea that could help us win the battle for our health?"

Mmm.

So, in Sandro's expert opinion,

we're becoming more overweight as a nation,

partly because of poor urban planning,

and fast food ads targeting our children.

We've also asked you on social media.

So what are the Australian government guidelines

for physical activity?

They say that being physically active for 30 minutes every day

will make a difference to your health and wellbeing.

But, with so many of us now overweight,

obesity has become a health crisis.

So, as a medic of 14 years, with a passion for diet,

nutrition and holistic health,

there's no-one better than Dr Renee

to get to the somewhat flabby bottom of our weight-loss woes.

She also likes...

..dancing?

Oh, interpretive dancing.

As a doctor,

I come face-to-face with the obesity problem all the time,

long-suffering patients who do everything they can

to lose the weight, but often it just comes back.

So maybe we shouldn't just be asking the question,

"How do you lose weight?"

We should also be asking, "How on earth do you keep it off?"

Professor Joe Proietto is on the front line of the obesity problem,

running a weight-control clinic in Melbourne.

He also likes gardening.

Hello. Hi, Professor Proietto.

How are you, Renee?

Welcome, welcome. Thank you.

But it's the Professor's research into weight loss

that's breaking new ground.

He believes our hormones push us to regain weight as soon as we lose it.

So, what happens after weight loss

is that the hunger hormone increases,

the hunger-suppressing hormones decrease,

and then what we discovered in 2011 is that they stay there permanently.

Well, at least, in our study,

we looked at 12 months after weight loss.

They were still different. Right.

But now we have evidence at six years that they're still different.

So, in other words,

the biology doesn't give up trying to get you back to your set point.

We're here now.

It's what's often referred to as the famine response.

After sustained weight loss,

hormones are released

urging us to eat more,

and then the whole cycle of dieting

and eating more repeats.

So a lot of people think that obese people are really just not trying.

If you understand the condition,

you know that these people are hungrier than people who are lean.

Appetite is regulated by hormones

that send signals from our gut,

fat and pancreas

to the hypothalamus in the brain controlling our hunger.

The hypothalamus is actually wired

to make us look for food all the time.

And that makes sense in an evolutionary sense.

And so... Things have changed.

But things have changed,

but they've changed so fast that our biology hasn't optimised yet.

We are not making any progress in stemming the obesity epidemic.

I mean, it's a major health issue,

that will end up killing more people than wars or infections

or anything else.

The problem seems overwhelming, and it is.

According to Professor Proietto's research,

a whopping 90%-95% of us fail to keep weight off after we've lost it,

because our hormones make us hungrier.

But what about the tiny minority that succeeds?

Could they hold the key to understanding weight loss?

To find out, I've come to Ararat,

a quiet, idyllic town 200km outside of Melbourne.

It was named as Australia's heaviest town in the 2011 national census.

A few years ago, reality show The Biggest Loser arrived here

to help the townsfolk lose weight.

Hello. Hello, Sharon?

Yes, how are you going? Nice to meet you.

I'm Renee, how are you? Good, how are you going?

Come in. Good, thank you.

I'm at the home of Sharon Bassett, one of the contestants.

Oh, my gosh. Your wedding photos. Yeah.

How long ago was that?

Wait...

I don't know.

Like...

Nup, has to be 2007, because she's a baby.

OK. How much did you way back then?

Probably 100 kilos in that photo.

OK. It wasn't my heaviest, though.

Heaviest, probably 120.

During the show,

Sharon lost a whopping 50 kilos,

41% of her body weight,

a truly impressive achievement.

Would you do the show again?

Yes. Yeah?

Yes, as hard as it was, I would still recommend it,

and I would still do it.