Q: I am 37 years old, my height is 165 cms and my weight is 80 kg. I am nearing obesity. Despite reducing food intake, walking 4 kms everyday and a bit of abdominal exercise, my weight keeps increasing. I don't have any blood pressure problem and neither am I diabetic. A few years ago I underwent a surgery for removing appendix and for correcting umbelical hernia. From then on I am constantly putting on weight. I am working in the accounting field and therefore I am not able to take part in any sport activity. One peculiar feature that I have noticed is, early in the morning when I get up my tummy size is small and as the day progresses the tummy size grows and I have frequent gas discharge. About a year back I had pain in the upper part of the stomach on the left side. I checked up with the doctor and was advised to take a USC scan for complete abdomen area. Scan showed that there is non moving polyp in the gall blader which is on the right side of the body. When I asked the doctor he said the pain could be refractive and he prescribed some medicine for amaebiosis. He further advised me to take Bolida scan to ascertain the effectiveness of the gall blader. Results showed that it is only 32% (normal range 62-70) and I was told that my gall bladder needs to be removed as it cannot be cured by medicine. I took the USG scan again. This time too the result showed presence of two polyps (In the previous scan it was one) and again after taking medicines for amaebiosis the pain subsided. Is the steady increase in weight due to gastric problem or is it due to gall bladder dysfunction?

A:Weight gain is always due to increase in muscle mass or fat or water accumulation. Rarely is it due to a tumour mass, although this mass may add weight. The sick body, as a consequence of being afflicted with an abnormal growth, loses weight. Of course, these rules do not apply to growing children or pregnant women. Diet will always lead to weight loss provided ther is no heart failure or kidney disease causing fluid retention. The problem of dieting is that most people feel that they have severely reduced food intake whereas in fact they have not achieved this goal. Dieting to lose weight can be very difficult unless one has a support system such as other dieters who form a club to help each other stick to a strict diet.