At Shenandoah Women’s Healthcare in Harrisonburg, VA, we know that losing weight can be challenging. If you’ve been struggling to lose that extra weight but for some reason or another have been unsuccessful, we can help. We offer medical weight loss plans that can help you kickstart a healthy lifestyle and become the healthiest version of yourself.
How Quickly Does Medical Weight Loss Work?
Patients who begin a medical weight loss treatment plan will lose weight. The rate at which patients lose weight will vary since there are many different factors that affect weight loss. A commitment to the treatment plan, eating the recommended foods while avoiding foods that don’t support weight loss, taking supplements as prescribed, and attending regular appointments will all work together to help you lose weight as quickly as possible.
You should notice positive changes in the scale within the first week to a month of your treatment, and as long as you stay disciplined and committed to the process, you will lose weight. This type of weight loss is also known as medically guided weight loss because you don’t have to do it on your own. When you have someone supporting you, someone to who you must stay accountable, you will be set up for success and will finally be able to shed extra weight.
Medical Weight Loss: How It Works
If you’ve never experienced a medical weight loss management program, we’re here to tell you what it is and how it works. Medically supervised weight loss is a way to lose weight with the help of medical professionals. It involves several different aspects, including lab work, supplementation, and dietary and fitness changes to help overhaul an unhealthy lifestyle, determine your unique needs, and help you reach the primary goal: weight loss.
Evaluating Your Current Health and Weight
The first step in a medically supervised weight loss program involves meeting with our medical professionals. Your initial consultation is an important step because it allows us to not only learn more about your weight loss goals but about your medical and health history. At your first appointment, we will perform a physical exam and may also perform lab work.
Lab work is important because it can give us a better idea of your health and also help us learn more about any medical conditions that may be affecting your current health or your ability to lose weight. This lab work lays the foundational groundwork from which we can build your diet plan and the supplements that we may prescribe to help you reach your goals that much faster.
Developing Your Unique Plan
Once we achieve a comprehensive understanding of your medical history and your current health through the diagnostic labs, we can move forward and design a medical weight loss plan that’s unique to your needs. Each patient has different needs and goals and a different medical history. Additionally, each patient has some health factors that may interfere with their ability to lose weight, and we will take these into account as we design your plan.
Our goal is to help you lose weight and overcome any roadblocks that you may have faced in the past. We will monitor your progress and health along the way, make adjustments as needed, and provide you with the accountability and support you need to succeed.
Creating a Diet Plan
When designing your unique weight loss plan, we will take your nutrition into account. We will provide you with the resources you need to eat the right foods that will nourish your body and promote weight loss. Our nutrition educator can design a dietary plan that will help you achieve results. Nutrition is a significant part of the weight-loss equation, and if you’ve been unable to lose weight in the past, it may be in part due to poor nutrition.
If you’re not sure where to start or what to eat to achieve your weight loss goals, we will overhaul your diet and provide you with the resources you need to eat the right foods, improve your health, and lose weight.
Beginning an Exercise Routine
Exercise is another important part of any weight loss plan, and when you begin a medical weight loss plan here at our office, one of our health coaches can help create a fitness plan that meets your needs. We can take your current level of fitness, limitations, and preferences into account to design a fitness plan it’s right for you.
Adding movement to your daily routine will help you burn calories, increase circulation, and promote heart health. Getting enough activity every day is crucial to helping you reach your body goals, and if you don’t know how or when to exercise, our experts can help you determine the best plan of attack.
Prescribing Supplements
Diet and fitness are significant parts of the weight-loss equation. Still, sometimes patients need something more to help them reach their goals in addition to dietary and fitness-related changes, and that’s where supplementation comes in.
Depending on your current health, your goals, and your preferences, we may prescribe appetite suppressants to help you break through a weight loss plateau and kickstart your metabolism. Appetite suppressants are completely safe when monitored by medical professionals who can prescribe the exact dosage that you need to lose weight quickly yet safely.
Scheduling and Attending Appointments
Over the course of your weight loss plan, you will meet with our medical professionals, who will monitor your progress and make changes as needed. These appointments are critical because they will allow us to track your progress, ensure that your plan is working to help you lose weight, and give you the accountability you need to succeed.
Keys to a Successful Weight Loss Program
If you’ve decided to finally seek outside help to lose that extra weight, you’ll never regret your decision. Once you begin this process, there are some ways that you can ensure successful weight loss. Our experts will walk alongside you throughout your entire weight-loss journey and make sure that you have the support, guidance, accountability, and resources that you need to reach your goals and maintain them long-term.
Stay Committed
Once you begin this process, it’s important that you stay committed. Committing to a weight loss treatment plan is a commitment not only to your current self but your future self as well. Staying committed to your treatment plan will help you succeed, improve your health, and increase your confidence long-term.
Balance Discipline With Grace
There will be times on your weight-loss journey when you’ll be tempted to sleep in instead of getting up to exercise, cheat on your diet, or skip an appointment. It’s important that you utilize discipline and push through the temptation to take the easy road.
However, even if you do cheat on your diet, miss a workout, or skip an appointment, know that you are human and give yourself grace. It’s important that you learn from your mistakes and keep going, stay committed to the process, and remember that tomorrow is a new day.
Keep a Food Journal
One of the best ways to help us help you along this journey is to keep a food journal. Writing down what you eat throughout the day will give us insight into your behaviors and even determine whether or not you are an emotional eater.
Your food journal can help us treat you accordingly so that we can ensure that you are eating the right foods at the right time. By keeping a food journal, you’ll be able to better understand why you binge eating and then take the steps to course correct it so that it doesn’t happen again.
Remember the End Goal
It’s important that while on this journey, you track your progress. There may be weeks that you don’t feel like you’re losing as much weight as you should. Still, you need to remember the end goal. Committing to the process and making the necessary diet and lifestyle changes will help you achieve results.
Remember that this program is an investment in yourself, one that you’ll never regret. When you keep the end goal in mind, achieving a healthy body weight and beginning a healthy lifestyle, it will be easier to stay committed to the process.
Experience Weight Loss Success
If you are tired of fad diets and want to make lasting changes that will improve your overall health and well-being, we can help. Our weight loss management plans can help transform your physical and mental state and help you become the healthiest version of yourself. Contact us today at Shenandoah Women’s Healthcare in Harrisonburg, VA, to learn more.