What is Medical Weight Loss? How it works…

Medical Weight loss is a food plan, counseling, and medication to promote weight loss provided through a physician. The physician is that person or specialist who monitors the whole program. Medical weight loss is popular among those customers who are comfortable with a structured program and are ready to make significant changes to their diet to lose weight.

How It Works

First, a patient will meet the medical professional for preliminary testing. Some states require that the initial consultation will be done by a board-certified MD (medical doctor) or DO (doctor of osteopathic medicine). However, all doctors have not additional training or credentials in obesity medicine.

That in some states meetings can be done by a nurse practitioner or a physician assistant. After that, the medical doctor who oversees the clinic will review the consultation.

During the first meeting, the patient has to do several tests, screenings, and other measurements that may include an EKG, urinalysis, blood panel, body composition analysis, and other vitals. Your professionals will also review your health history and current prescriptions.

After the testing reports, they will create a diet and exercise plan with an emphasis on accountability, education, and support with supplements, or vitamin-based injections.

After a week your health is monitored and supplements, prescriptions, or injections are administered. At this time you can ask any questions related to this medication and make any necessary modifications to your plan to your physician.

When you achieve your weight loss goal, you transition to monthly meetings. During this interval, your provider may make adjustments to the diet and recommend supplements or testing during each meeting.

What to Eat

Medical Weight loss promotes a high-protein, hypocaloric (low-calorie) diet to put the body into nutritional ketosis; this is a state in which you burn primarily stored fat (rather than glucose) for fuel.

This first phase called the "acute weight loss" phase; the patients will eat primarily protein foods to induce ketosis. Calorie counts at this phase will below about 500 to 700 calories from protein sources, and you can take some additional protein from other fruits, vegetables, healthy fats, and other miscellaneous items such as herbs and soups. Patients don’t journal calories or carbohydrate intake. Instead of this, they use protein calories and also servings of fruits, vegetables, healthy fats, and other foods.

For example, a doctor prescribes the 700 protein calories, but also at least two servings of fruits or veggies, two servings of fat, and four servings of other calories. The protein calories prescribed depend on the metabolic test results and activity level and are usually adjusted at least once during the acute phase.

Hydration is also a vital component of the Medical Weight loss diet. This is very common for patients to become constipated and tired when they reduce and remove carbohydrate intake. But if you follow proper hydration it can reduce these symptoms. According to the patient weight and activity levels a specific hydration plan recommended by the doctor.

As the patients get closer to their weight loss goal, they can sift the "short-term maintenance" phase monthly from weekly visits. During this time, the patient can slowly increase the intake of carbohydrates and calories via servings of starch and dairy and an increase in servings of veggies, fruits, and fat. Protein calories you can take the same or change as your need.

Last phase "wellness" which starts when patients achieve the targeted weight loss. Then the weekly clinic visit turns to monthly and may undergo additional testing. At this interval of time, patients move to a 40/30/30 eating plan where 40 percent of calories consumed come from carbohydrates, 30 percent come from fats and 30 percent come from protein, as like low-carb eating plans.