This volume explores basic and advanced aspects of our understanding of and current treatment for obesity. Contributors provide a multidisciplinary overview of this disease and offer practical guidance on state-of-the-art methods of assessment and treatment. The first section of the book examines the disease of obesity and its metabolic consequences. It explores obesity in relation to physiological and psychological health, and describes the clinical aspects of properly evaluating obese patients. The roles of dietary factors, appetite, exercise, metabolism, and the endocrine system in obesity are discussed, as well as the effects of significant weight loss on long-term health. The psychology of obesity weight loss, and regain is also discussed. The second section provides practitioners with detailed guidelines for selecting and implementing multidisciplinary treatment that incorporates dietary intervention, exercise, behaviour modification, and stress management, and, when necessary, surgery or pharmacotherapy. Matching patients with clinical interventions and treatment settings is emphasized, and strategies for maintaining weight loss are presented. The final chapter illustrates how to design interventions appropriate for the hospital, physician's office, clinic, home, and workplace, and how to integrate different types of interventions in multiple settings. Physicians, dietitians, psychiatrists, psychologists, exercise physiologists, and allied health professionals, as well as obesity researchers, should gain a broader understanding of the evaluation and treatment of obesity from this volume.