Nourishing the obese patient

Obese patients are frequently encountered in hospitals. This is not unexpected given the fact that obesity currently constitutes a worldwide public health epidemic. The clinical indications for nutritional support and route of nutrition support selected should be similar in obese and normal weight patients. Determining nutritional requirements by conventional methods and formulas are often inaccurate in this population. For this reason, direct measurement of energy needs using indirect calorimetry when available has become the preferred method. A strategy employing hypocaloric nutrition support will be presented and discussed. (C) 2000 Harcourt Publishers Ltd.