Maintaining a healthy weight is the goal of almost all individuals today. However, achieving and maintaining an ideal weight can be a bit challenging. Surprisingly, physiotherapy can contribute to your weight management efforts.

There are many approaches that people use to lose weight. For instance, people resort to following a particular diet to lose weight. Some people also spend hours at the gym to sweat and lose fat. But in recent years, even physiotherapists have succeeded in helping people improve their physical function.  

Let’s explore how by learning a bit about physiotherapy first.

A] What’s The Role Of Physiotherapy?

Physiotherapy is also known as physical therapy. It is a healthcare profession that focuses on enhancing the physical function and overall well-being of a person.

A physiotherapist uses various techniques and exercises to enhance the mobility of a person.

If you are experiencing pain in your joints or body, a physiotherapist is the person you go to alleviate the pain.

Most people believe that physiotherapists only help you recover from injuries. But it is just another myth about physiotherapy. Physiotherapists also play a great role in improving an individual’s health.

B] The Connection Between Physiotherapy And Weight Management

Physiotherapy is not just about treating people’s injuries or making them more mobile. It plays a much broader role in people’s lives. For instance, it helps in weight management.

Let us further explore how your health can benefit from physiotherapy.

1. Promotes Physical Activity

Physiotherapy has the capacity to promote physical activity in a person. A physiotherapist can help you achieve your weight loss goals by providing you with a customized exercise plan.

Physiotherapists create exercise regimes according to an individual’s physical conditions and needs. These plans might be a mix of cardio exercises, strength training, and physical exercises.

Personalized plans help in making an individual more flexible and active. Incorporating more physical activities eventually helps a person lose weight.

2. Helps In Pain Management

Once a person enters into the phase of obesity, he might experience a lot of health complications. Sometimes, chronic pain also accompanies obesity. This pain can make a person suffer and it also acts as a barrier to physical activity.

If this happens to you, visiting a physiotherapist is the best you can do. Your physiotherapist will introduce several techniques that will help you get rid of the chronic pain. These techniques might include manual therapy, therapeutic exercises, or both.

Such exercises and therapies will help you manage and reduce your pain. When the pain goes away, you will be able to engage in regular exercise without feeling the discomfort.

3. Helps In Improving The Hormonal Imbalance

The key to losing weight fast and getting into shape is setting your metabolism right. In most cases, people have a low metabolism because of hormonal imbalances. If your hormones are not working in order, you might struggle with weight loss.

Physiotherapy can play a role in regulating hormones like cortisol and insulin through several mechanisms.

Stress and anxiety contribute to elevated cortisol levels. But with physiotherapy, you can learn several relaxation techniques such as deep breathing, meditation, and progressive muscle relaxation, which will help you reduce stress and lower your cortisol levels.

Your physiotherapist will recommend regular physical activities which will help in improving insulin sensitivity. Your body’s cells will become more responsive to insulin and you will also have better blood sugar regulation.

When your body manages the blood sugar decently, you will be less susceptible to weight gain.

4. Helps In Enhancing Muscle Mass

Physiotherapy often involves resistance training. This type of exercise plays a crucial role in building lean muscle mass. Once your body has an increased muscle mass, you will experience several benefits.

One of the greatest benefits of increased muscle mass is a higher resting metabolic rate. It means that if you have more muscle, you will burn more calories, even when you are at rest.

Resistance training exercises described by physiotherapists work for specific muscle groups. These exercises challenge your muscles which leads to hypertrophy or muscle growth.

As your muscle mass rises, your body’s demand for energy also rises. Your body is working harder than usual and using up extra energy. So even when you are inactive, you will have an efficient metabolism. The higher the metabolism, the faster the weight loss process.

5. Long-Term And Sustainable Weight Loss Plans

These days people fall for crash diets and extreme exercise routines. Both of these weight loss approaches might prove helpful in the short term. However, in the long run, crash diets and extreme exercise routines are not at all beneficial.

Once you stop the diet, your body might suffer. Similarly, you might tire your body way too much by indulging in extreme workouts.

Unlike crash diets and extreme exercise routines, physiotherapy offers a more sustainable approach to weight management.  A physiotherapist will help you achieve the desired weight by focusing on gradual and long-term changes in your lifestyle and habits.

6. Consider Your Limitations

Physiotherapy begins with a comprehensive assessment of your physical condition. Your physiotherapist will assess your fitness level, medical history, and your weight loss goals. Based on this information, he will create an exercise and treatment plan for you. This plan will be much more realistic and achievable.

A great thing about these plans is that they consider an individual’s current abilities and limitations. As you follow these plans, you will see incremental improvements over time. Your physiotherapist will make sure that you can comfortably integrate activity into your daily life.

So, such plans will be more sustainable for you as you will be able to make meaningful lifestyle modifications. They will prioritize your overall health and well-being.

7. Follows A More Holistic Approach To Well-Being

Physiotherapy takes a holistic approach to health and wellness. Rather than merely treating the symptoms of weight gain, physiotherapy focuses on increasing the root causes.

As mentioned, physiotherapists consider several factors to prepare a suitable physiotherapy plan for you. The holistic evaluation helps your physiotherapist identify the elements that contribute to your weight gain.

There can be several factors that may be causing weight gain in a person. For instance, a person might become obese because of poor posture, muscle, imbalances, chronic pain, or metabolic issues. Your physiotherapist will prepare a plan that will help you create lasting solutions.

Physiotherapy isn’t about just treating the current weight-related issues. It also helps in preventing future problems. Once your physiotherapist identifies the root cause of weight gain and prepares a weight loss plan for you, he can help build a foundation for your long-term health.

Wrapping It Up

Putting on weight is one of the easiest things in the world for some people. But shedding a few pounds is certainly challenging. Weight management is crucial if you want to lead a healthy life.

If you are struggling to lose weight, perhaps a physiotherapist can offer you the best solution. You can reach out to a good physiotherapist who will devise an individual activity and diet plan for you.

A physiotherapist can do a lot more than just help you lose weight. He can help you become more active, gain more strength, and improve your mobility.

Seeing a physiotherapist to manage your weight can also bring many other positive changes in your health as we have just discussed. If you tried to change how you look but turned unsuccessful, a physiotherapist might help you enhance your health-related quality of life and your mental well-being