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Definitions

Weight management refers to a set of practices and behaviors that are necessary to keep one's weight at a healthful level. It is preferred to the term "dieting," because it involves more than regulation of food intake or treatment of overweight people. People diagnosed with eating disorders who are not obese or overweight still need to practice weight management. Some health care professionals use the term "nutritional disorders" to cover all disorders related to weight.

The term "weight management" also reflects a change in thinking about treatment of obesity and overweight during the past 20 years. Before 1980, treatment of overweight people focused on weight loss, with the goal of helping the patient reach an "ideal weight" as defined by standard life insurance height-weight charts. In recent years, however, researchers have discovered that most...