[Conservative obesity treatment - when and how?].

With a prevalence of 24 %, obesity is a frequent disease in the general population in Germany. Obesity requires an effective prevention and treatment, mainly because it significantly increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular, orthopaedic, psychologic and other disorders. The indication for the treatment of obesity is based on BMI and body fat distribution, but also includes considerations based on comorbidities. Main treatment goals include body weight reduction and weight maintenance after weight loss. To achieve these goals, a conservative treatment strategy is primarily recommended which consists of energy-reduced diet with a daily deficit of 500 kcal, increased physical activity, behavioral modifications or treatment. Several multimodal conservative treatment programs have been evaluated. If individual treatment targets could not be achieved, stepwise conservative treatment intensification should be initiated with very low calorie diets, pharmacotherapy and / or endoscopic obesity therapies. Surgical interventions represent an additional step in the obesity treatment algorithm, which have been shown to be more effective than conservative approaches with regard to weight and body fat reduction, improvement in obesity-related comorbidities, long-term weight maintenance and reduced mortality. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.