Metabolic Weight Loss Program: Benefits and Considerations

If you've ever struggled with weight loss, you know how challenging it can be. You might eat healthily, exercise regularly, and still not see the results you desire. Traditional weight loss methods often overlook the underlying biological factors that contribute to weight gain. Metabolic weight loss programs aim to address these factors, offering a different approach to shedding pounds and improving overall health.

Understanding Metabolic Diets

New diets are constantly emerging, often based on the latest research. One of the more recent trends is the metabolic diet, which focuses on altering the way your body metabolizes food. The term "metabolic diet" encompasses various approaches, including the fast metabolism diet, high metabolism diet, metabolism miracle, and MD diet factor.

These diets share similarities with the Atkins diet, emphasizing reduced carbohydrate intake for weight loss. However, they often differentiate between complex and refined carbohydrates. Many versions of the metabolic diet include complex carbohydrates like whole grains, oats, and brown rice, while excluding refined carbs found in processed breads, flours, and sugars.

A common component of these diets is eating small meals throughout the day - typically three regular meals with two snacks - to help kick-start your metabolism. Frequent, small meals may help you manage hunger better throughout the day.

How Metabolism Affects Weight

Your body converts food into fuel. The faster your metabolism is, the faster your body can turn nutrients from food into energy. Having a slow metabolism means your body tends to store nutrients as fat instead of burning them up. A high metabolism diet aims to make your metabolism faster, so you burn fat instead of storing it.

Read also: Overview of Metabolic Diets in Cancer Research

In low-carb diets, your body will shift to burning fat for energy, which leads to the production of compounds called ketones, which are thought to decrease appetite. The goal of these diets is to teach your body to burn body fat for energy.

Ketones are acids made in the body when there isn’t enough insulin to get sugar from your blood, and your body turns to burning fat instead of carbs. A buildup of too many ketones can be toxic, a condition called ketoacidosis. People with diabetes have to pay special attention to ketones. A small amount of ketones in your body is nothing to worry about. See your doctor if you have high ketone levels.

Potential Benefits of Metabolic Weight Loss Programs

The high metabolism diet can be beneficial for weight loss, but more research needs to be done on its effectiveness and safety. By eating the right kinds of foods, you may be able to increase your metabolism and burn body fat as opposed to carbs, leading to weight loss.

  • Weight Loss: By focusing on metabolism, these diets aim to help you burn fat more efficiently.
  • Improved Blood Sugar Control: Low-carb diets may help people with diabetes lose weight and control their blood sugar levels. One study shows that low carb diets are beneficial for people with type 1 diabetes, as they can help reduce insulin doses and improve blood sugar control.
  • Cardiometabolic Health: People who do not lose weight can improve their metabolism and reduce their long-term risk for disease.
  • Reduced Risk of Death: Surgery for weight loss lowers the risk of death related to many diseases including heart disease (40% lower), diabetes (92% lower), and cancer (60% lower) are also significantly reduced.

Considerations and Potential Risks

Some of these diets promise weight loss of up to 20 pounds over four weeks. While there are many testimonials for these claims, studies are lacking. Most healthcare professionals consider such quick weight loss unsafe and unsustainable. There is also evidence that losing a significant amount of weight rapidly can slow your metabolism, which makes it easier to regain weight.

  • Rapid Weight Loss: Be wary of programs promising extremely rapid weight loss, as this can be unsustainable and potentially harmful.
  • Ketone Buildup: In low-carb diets, your body will shift to burning fat for energy, which leads to the production of compounds called ketones, which are thought to decrease appetite. A buildup of too many ketones can be toxic, a condition called ketoacidosis.
  • Individual Needs: Every person is different, so not all diets are right for everyone. People with specific medical conditions should be particularly wary of diets. In general, people with diabetes must take special care when dieting and pay special attention to their food intake and blood sugar levels.

The Importance of Lifestyle Change

Critics of these diets believe that anyone who goes on a diet will eventually go off of it and fall back into the habits that got them in trouble in the first place. This is why the metabolic diet is thought of more as a lifestyle change. In order to maintain your weight and not fall back into old habits, you will need to change what you eat and how you eat for good.

Read also: Explore the Cardio Metabolic Diet for optimal health

The overall goal of metabolic-centered diets is to create lasting changes in your diet and lifestyle. The amount of time you spend on the diet depends on how much weight you want to lose. After you lose the weight you intended to lose, there should be a stabilization period in which you get used to your new body and keep it at that target weight.

GLP-1 Medications: A Metabolic Approach

GLP-1s are already changing lives, but weight loss is just the beginning. For many people, traditional weight loss methods don’t address the biological factors that contribute to weight gain. “These medications don’t just help people lose weight. They also improve overall health,” says Patrick Welch, PharmD, BCACP, an Advanced Clinical Pharmacist at Intermountain. GLP-1s can help you lose weight, but they aren’t a magic fix. There is a potential to regain the lost weight, but those chances decrease when you work with a healthcare provider to transition off the medication safely. “All the clinical trials that showed these medications working also included education on eating and exercise,” explains Welch.

  • Administration: GLP-1 medications are typically taken as a once-weekly injection. You use a small needle to inject the medication into fatty tissue - usually in your belly, thighs, arms, or upper buttocks.
  • Safety: GLP-1s have been extensively studied and are considered safe when prescribed and monitored by a healthcare provider.
  • Mechanism: “GLP-1s slow food moving through the intestines. It tells your brain it’s not hungry,” says Sara Fausett, a registered dietitian at Intermountain Health Cedar City Hospital.
  • Comprehensive Assessment: Your doctor will also look at your full health history, including past and current medical conditions, family history, previous weight loss attempts, and medications.
  • Importance of Medical Supervision: Many online services now offer quick prescriptions for GLP-1s. “Many direct-to-consumer brands don’t have full access to a patient’s medical history,” Welch explains.

Metabolic Surgery

Obesity is a chronic, relapsing medical condition. The disease of obesity can lead to a variety of illnesses and health conditions. This reality leads to frustration and depression. Billings Clinic is here to help through our Weight Management Services. Obesity is very dicult to treat. Many “diets” can lead to frustration as they are seldom sustainable for long-term weight loss. Our team will help you decide which program is best for you.

Our Billings Clinic Weight Management Team is designed to help you with a balanced approach which lays the foundation for long term success. choose surgical treatment options to help balance weight and health. At Billings Clinic, we treat the whole person. Metabolic surgery involves several months of preparation prior to the actual operation. When you've made the decision to improve your health through metabolic options, it's important to have all the right information for you and your family.

  • Insurance Coverage: Contact your insurance company to verify if your plan covers metabolic surgery (bariatric surgery/weight loss surgery). Montana Medicaid does not cover metabolic surgery, but every other plan is different in their coverage. They may ask for CPT codes: Gastric Bypass (43644) or Sleeve Gastrectomy (43775).
  • Qualification: If your BMI is >40 you automatically qualify. BMI (Body Mass Index) is calculation using your height and weight. This a medical condition that often occurs along with obesity that is expected to improve with weight loss.
  • Preparation: Patients wanting to have metabolic surgery will spend several months working with our team in preparation for surgery. Metabolic surgery is a big change and involves many lifestyle changes.
  • Multidisciplinary Team: Patients in our program work with a medical provider, dietitian, trainer, licensed clinic social worker and of course a surgeon.
  • Accreditation: Our program is accredited by MBSAQIP (Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Accreditation and Quality Improvement Program). This means that we must meet and uphold certain standards along with continually improving the quality of our program. Our multi-disciplinary team will help you prepare for surgery and will continue to work with you afterward.
  • Surgery as Part of Treatment: Obesity is a chronic, relapsing condition. This means that surgery doesn’t cure obesity - it is just part of the treatment.
  • Benefits of Surgery: Weight loss surgery does not just treat the disease of obesity, but it treats other conditions like diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, arthritis, and acid reflux.
  • Surgical Procedures: Weight loss surgery, also known as bariatric surgery, such as gastric bypass, sleeve gastrectomy, and duodenal switch work by changing the anatomy (or position) of the stomach and small intestines.
  • Hormonal Signals: Many of the hormonal signals that cause weight gain or inability to lose weight are affected by these procedures, and it becomes easier to lose weight. But this still requires a healthy diet and a good exercise routine.
  • Improved Well-being: When patients start to lose weight after surgery, they also feel more energetic, less pain, and more enthusiasm for doing things they have not done in years.
  • Hormonal Changes: The significant and rapid weight loss after surgery can lead to changes in hormones and lead to even more weight loss.
  • Reduced Risk of Death: Surgery for weight loss lowers the risk of death related to many diseases including heart disease (40% lower), diabetes (92% lower), and cancer (60% lower) are also significantly reduced.

Intermittent Fasting

Intermittent fasting (IF) is a term used to describe a variety of eating patterns in which no or few calories are consumed for time periods that can range from 12 hours to several days, on a recurring basis. Emerging findings suggest the metabolic switch from glucose to fatty acid-derived ketones represents an evolutionarily conserved trigger point that shifts metabolism from lipid/cholesterol synthesis and fat storage to mobilization of fat through fatty acid oxidation and fatty-acid derived ketones, which serve to preserve muscle mass and function. Thus, IF regimens that induce the metabolic switch have the potential to improve body composition in overweight individuals. Moreover, IF regimens also induce the coordinated activation of signaling pathways that optimize physiological function, enhance performance, and slow aging and disease processes.

Read also: Metabolic Weight Loss Clinic: Does it really work?

  • Metabolic Switch: Here, we define the metabolic switch as the body’s preferential shift from utilization of glucose from glycogenolysis to fatty acids and fatty acid-derived ketones. The reason we use the word ‘preferential’ is because there is now a growing body of research to indicate ketones are the preferred fuel for both the brain and body during periods of fasting and extended exercise. Of relevance to weight management, this switch represents a shift from lipid synthesis and fat storage to mobilization of fat in the form of free fatty acids (FFAs) and fatty-acid derived ketones.
  • Timing: The metabolic switch typically occurs between 12 to 36 hours after cessation of food consumption depending on the liver glycogen content at the beginning of the fast, and on the amount of the individual’s energy expenditure/exercise during the fast.
  • Ketone Production: Simultaneously, other cell types may also begin generating ketones, with astrocytes in the brain being one notable example.
  • Energy Source: Through these physiological processes, ketones serve as an energy source to sustain the function of muscle and brain cells during fasting and extended periods of physical exertion/exercise.(21) Thus, it appears when the metabolic switch is flipped, the primary energy source for the body shifts from glucose to FFA derived from adipose tissue lipolysis and ketones, which serve to preserve muscle.
  • Muscle Preservation: There are a few potential mechanisms through which a shift to fatty acid and ketone oxidation, relative to glucose oxidation, may serve to preserve muscle mass.

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