If weight management were easy, there wouldn’t be entire industries that profit from promising a miracle cure for weight loss. Far too many products and programs push the belief that rapid weight loss is healthy and sustainable.
We understand that one’s weight can drastically impact their quality of life, but you’ll do yourself no favors if you take extreme, unhealthy measures to lose weight.
Our weight loss program is effective without jeopardizing your health. We take a comprehensive approach to help you safely reach and maintain a healthy weight.
Read on to learn about our weight loss program and common factors that can sabotage successful weight loss and weight management.
How Our Program Works
1. Have an initial appointment with our nurse practitioner. For in-office visits (not telehealth), we’ll use an InBody professional body composition analyzer to determine your body composition and conduct a bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA).
With InBody technology, you’ll receive your easy-to-read results sheet within 15-120 seconds. The BIA results will help you set realistic weight loss goals and a plan of action specific to your body’s needs.
2. We will order the necessary labs.
3. You will have a follow-up appointment to review labs and develop a weight loss plan tailored for you.
4. Join our weekly “SPARK” meeting to learn how to interpret the data collected from your analysis and lab results. Understanding this information and learning about other healthy weight loss methods will set you up for success.
What Can Sabotage Weight Loss?
There are many reasons why people struggle with their weight. Some common factors that can sabotage weight loss include:
What You Eat
Does your doctor tell you to “eat less and exercise more?” This advice was founded on maintaining a balance between calories in (what we eat) and calories out (what we burn). The idea is to burn more calories than you consume throughout the day.
This simplistic and incomplete advice will not help people address their concerns. Eating less and exercising more is terrible advice, as it often leads to cravings, fatigue, and deteriorating health.
What you eat and how much you eat is vital, but it’s not about consuming as few calories as possible.
To ensure you’re receiving the proper nutrients your body needs to function, we have you log what you eat. This food diary allows our health providers to make subtle, healthy changes to your diet for maximal impact.
Inflammation
Underlying inflammation can thwart your weight loss efforts. Many factors, like the over-consumption of acidic foods, can cause inflammation in your body.
We evaluate for underlying inflammation and reduce it through the following:
- Dietary targets
- Controlling glucose
- Diagnosing chronic infections
- Determining any exposure to toxic substances
Insulin Resistance
One consequence of chronic inflammation is possible insulin resistance.
The pancreas creates insulin, a hormone that regulates blood sugar in the body.
Your body breaks the food you eat down into blood sugar. As blood sugar enters the bloodstream, it triggers the pancreas to release insulin, which helps blood sugar enter the body’s cells so it can be used for energy.
Insulin resistance occurs when too much blood sugar enters the bloodstream. In response, the pancreas will produce more insulin than usual, but eventually, the body’s cells will stop responding to the extra insulin, resulting in elevated blood sugar levels.
There isn’t a specific test for identifying insulin resistance. However, blood tests like a blood glucose test and a lipid panel may help your provider determine if you have insulin resistance.
For more information about lipid panels, please read our blog “The Importance of Lipid Panels.”
Blood Sugar Spikes
Nearly 80% of adults experience blood sugar spikes, which will stop weight loss in its tracks.
As mentioned, when there is an excess amount of blood sugar in the bloodstream, the pancreas releases more insulin to get the body’s cells to absorb more blood sugar. That’s a problem because your body will only burn fat when insulin levels drop.
We use continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) to evaluate metabolism and troubleshoot for patients.
Utilizing a combination of supplements and prescription medications, we can reduce blood sugar spikes while working on a patient’s diet.
Exercise
Whether you exercise a lot or are just getting started, there are a couple of basics that apply to most people when trying to burn fat and get lean:
- Tracking your steps as you strive for plenty of daily activity is the foundation of regulating weight.
- Adding resistance training that fuels your metabolism will help you burn fat faster.
Sleep
Getting adequate sleep is necessary for weight loss. Lack of sleep can lead to adverse metabolic changes, such as slow metabolism and blood sugar spikes.
We employ strategies to monitor sleep and help ensure patients receive the quality rest they need.
For more information on how sleep impacts your health, please read our blog “Healthy Sleep Cycle Habits.”
Hormones
Adrenal and thyroid issues can lead to weight gain.
Your adrenal glands are vital to survival because they release stress hormones when your brain senses that you may be in danger. One of these hormones is cortisol.
When your adrenals release excess cortisol, you may experience various symptoms, weight gain being one of them.
Different forms of stress can elevate cortisol levels, such as:
- Physical
- Emotional
- Chemical
- Spiritual
- Dietary
You may also have a growth in your pituitary gland or adrenal glands, causing the production of excess cortisol.
When warranted, we use saliva and blood tests to create a complete picture of hormone balance in the body.
For more information on thyroid health and testing, please read our blog “Autoimmune Disorders and Your Thyroid.”
Achieve Your Weight Loss Goals with The James Clinic
It’s a new year, and we all have our resolutions. However, we should all focus on maintaining our health to ensure we can live high-quality lives for all the years to come.
One way to ensure health, happiness, and longevity is to manage your weight.
Obesity can lead to a wide range of health issues that will leave you wishing you had taken preventive steps when you had the chance.
Begin your weight loss journey today! To talk with Dr. Mollie James or a nurse practitioner about our weight loss program, please request a consult.