Weight Management with Lipedema

Healthy and balanced nutrition is vital to your overall well-being. Most diets intend to lose weight in a short time and fail in the end. In many cases, this even results in gaining weight instead of losing it (called "yo-yo effect") and must be avoided.

A lot of lipedema patients are overweight. Although lipedema itself is not necessarily progressive, overweight can make your lipedema worse. There are conservative (non-surgical) and surgical ways for weight management with lipedema.

Conservative (non-surgical) weight management

Balanced nutrition, together with regular exercise, are the key elements of conservative weight management. Lipedema experts created a weight management concept for lipedema patients. Here are the most important points:

• Avoid short-term diets. Instead, focus on balanced nutrition that you can follow in the long-term.
• Simple calorie counting is not useful with lipedema: You should balance your intake with the energy you need during the day. However, some nutrients are more beneficial than others.
• Healthy fats, such as olive oil or oily fish, are recommended, whereas processed food with a high amount of saturated fat should be avoided.
• Try to avoid processed food in general – it is often high in sugar and saturated fat.
• Try to focus on three meals a day and keep 4-6 hours without snacking between your meals. An interval of 12 hours without snacking is recommended overnight. This helps to keep your blood sugar on a stable level and has an anti-inflammatory effect.
• Support and coaching, e.g., from a dietician, can help you to stabilize your weight.

Surgical weight management

Bariatric surgery is an option for weight management in patients with severe obesity. It is recommended in patients with a Body Mass Index (BMI) of more than 40 kg/m² and may be an option for patients with a BMI between 35 to 40 kg/m². There are different types of bariatric surgeries, but all imply changes to your digestive system. One example is to reduce your stomach's size and thus the amount of food you can eat.

Learn more about bariatric surgery