You are not alone if you struggle with your weight. For many Australians, weight is one of life’s great challenges. Two in three adults are overweight or obese and one in four children. [1]
The key question for you is whether health funds can provide benefits for weight loss. The answer to that is yes.
What does science say about how to lose weight?
Despite a new fad diet every year or so, evidence-based weight loss is eating healthy food and using more calories than you consume. [2] The theory is pretty simple. Applying it in meaningful ways is the challenge. How do you make the changes to cut weight and keep it off?
Weight loss programs on your hospital cover
RBHS includes weight loss programs on your hospital cover if you have an underlying health condition and there usually will not be any out of pocket expenses for you. As with any service, you will need to have served your waiting periods which involves 2 months for our weight loss programs and a 12-month waiting period for pre-existing conditions if you have weight loss surgery.
The conditions we currently cover weight loss for are below. We are always looking to add more programs to help your health, so keep an eye on this page as we add more programs.
Weight loss help on your extras cover
Don’t have hospital cover or don’t have one of the listed health conditions? You can still use your RBHS extras cover as long as you have served your waiting periods for health management programs.
Health explainer:
What is the difference between overweight and obese?
The standard measurement is Body Mass Index for now. Although widely disliked, BMI can be a useful indicator. However, your own doctor will take your individual factors into account like muscle mass and so forth that are not captured by BMI to give you a more accurate reading on whether you need to address any weight issues.
Below is a table of the current BMI framework as it stands. What we can take from it is that simply obese is more than overweight.
| BMI (kg/m2) | Classification |
|---|---|
| Less than 18.5 |
Underweight |
| 18.5 to less than 25 | Normal weight range |
| 25 to less than 30 | Overweight |
| 30 or more | Obese |
Source: World Health Organization (WHO) 2000. Obesity: preventing and managing the global epidemic. Report of a WHO consultation. WHO technical report series 894. Geneva: WHO.
Curious about what is wrong with BMI?
Research from University of Pennsylvania reported in Medical News Today claims that BMI “is an inaccurate measure of body fat content and does not take into account muscle mass, bone density, overall body composition, and racial and sex differences.”
The key point is that you can be healthy and unhealthy both within and outside a normal BMI.
References:
Australian Government Department of Health, "Overweight and Obesity," 19 June 2019. [Online]. Available: https://www1.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/Overweight-and-Obesity [Accessed 9 July 2020]
D. Prologo, "3 research-based things a doctor says should be part of your weight loss efforts," The Conversation, 11 April 2018. [Online]. Available: https://theconversation.com/3-research-based-things-a-doctor-says-should-be-part-of-your-weight-loss-efforts-91704
[Accessed 9 July 2020]