Are you among the millions of Americans struggling with weight? If so, a weight loss clinic may be the answer. Getting to an ideal, healthy weight can be harder for some than others, and extra weight can impact many areas of your well-being and increase the risk of developing a range of conditions. Weight loss clinics offer a variety of services and treatments to help individuals achieve their weight loss goals and improve their overall health. These clinics provide comprehensive and individualized plans, with experts from across different fields working together to help you achieve your wellness objectives.
Understanding Weight Loss Clinic Services
Weight loss clinics offer a range of services, including medical weight loss, pharmacotherapy, bariatric surgery, and long-term weight maintenance programs. These programs focus on nutrition, physical activity, education, and lifestyle changes. The specialists understand that weight management is about much more than calorie intake and exercise. That’s why they deliver customized plans that focus on your overall physical and mental health.
Comprehensive Health Assessments
To create the most effective program, clinics begin by gathering details about your overall health through comprehensive health assessments. This information allows them to recommend an approach that works for your specific body type, making your plan more successful. These assessments typically include:
- Blood tests: Evaluate metabolism and lipids (fats).
- Body composition analyses: Measure the ratio of muscle to fat and calculate your metabolic rate (the number of calories your body needs to function).
- Tests: Measure vital signs and heart and lung function.
- Thorough reviews: Weight history, medications, nutrition patterns, and eating habits.
Medical Weight Management
Weight management specialists deliver customized treatments based on your overall health and goals. Medical weight loss involves medically supervised weight management plans and nutrition therapy. A doctor oversees your weight loss, adjusts your medications, and monitors your health throughout the process.
As a core component of a dietary program, clinics create a carefully tailored plan that’s completely customized for you. Through a comprehensive evaluation, they determine how much protein your body needs and then create a food plan that includes that exact amount. This approach is effective at controlling hunger and allowing you to lose weight without losing muscle.
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Each medically supervised weight loss plan is fully customized to your needs and goals, creating a personalized dietary program around your food preferences, body composition, metabolism, and medical history. This comprehensive approach maximizes weight loss and improves overall health.
In addition to meal replacements and products available for purchase, several low-calorie and very low-calorie diet plans are available. Experts work closely with you at every step to supervise your weight loss and ensure that you’re staying healthy. All medical weight management plans include:
- Regular visits with a dietitian
- Periodic visits with your doctor to monitor your health through blood tests and EKGs
- Frequent checkups to track your progress and set new goals
- Counseling, education, guidance, and support to keep you motivated and informed
The U-M Health Weight Management Program, for example, is a 2-year, highly structured, multi-disciplinary and multi-component lifestyle intervention that helps individuals lose weight, keep it off, and reverse their underlying associated health conditions, or prevents them from developing. During the first 12 weeks, patients are prescribed a very-low calorie diet that includes meal replacements. Typical weight loss ranges between 15-25% from baseline weight. Following this initial period, patients will be transitioned to a low-calorie diet using everyday foods tailored to their personal preferences.
Pharmacotherapy for Weight Loss
Weight loss clinics may offer medications to help people with obesity lose weight. A doctor may recommend drugs that reduce the body’s fat absorption, help you feel full longer, decrease your appetite, or regulate hormones necessary for weight loss.
These weight loss medications are more successful when combined with diet and lifestyle changes. The clinic helps you find the right option, adjust your medications as necessary, and adopt healthier habits. Clinical pharmacists work with you to find the right medications for your needs, including GLP-1s, which help regulate blood sugar and appetite.
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Bariatric Surgery Procedures
If you and your doctor decide that surgery is the most appropriate option, you’re in expert hands. Bariatric surgery may be recommended as the best treatment option for weight loss, especially for those who have a high body mass index (BMI) and are not seeing adequate weight loss with medical interventions. Weight loss surgery changes in your anatomy causes an adjustment in your body’s hormone signaling, which allows weight loss to continue beyond the expectations of lifestyle changes alone.
Clinics specialize in a number of innovative techniques, including minimally invasive, robot-assisted procedures that involve fewer incisions and faster recovery. These techniques require smaller incisions, involve less recovery time, and have a lower risk of complications than traditional (open) procedures.
Surgical options include:
- Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery: A technique that divides the stomach into two pouches and then rearranges the small intestines to connect to the smaller pouch. The weight loss after gastric bypass surgery is often enough to reduce or end health problems from obesity, helping patients to experience quality of life improvements within the first year.
- Lap band: A procedure that places an inflatable band around the upper part of the stomach.
- Gastric sleeve surgery: A procedure that removes more than half of the stomach, creating a small tube or “sleeve.” By doing this, the hormone signaling between your gut and brain is changed, which improves weight loss outcomes. Benefits of this option include a reduced risk of complications, less abdominal pain, and typically a minimal change in your body’s ability to absorb vitamins and nutrients. Also known as vertical sleeve gastrectomy.
- Duodenal switch (DS) surgery: A complex but highly effective type of weight loss surgery. This procedure combines gastric sleeve surgery and gastric bypass surgery by creating a narrow, tube-shaped stomach and rerouting it to a large segment of the small intestine. Compared to other types of weight loss surgery, DS surgery results in the largest weight loss and significantly lowers health risks associated with obesity. However, it comes with some risks, and can cause long-term vitamin and mineral deficiency and lifestyle challenges caused by malabsorption.
The team also offers several endoscopic weight loss procedures that don’t require an incision. A doctor inserts an endoscope (a flexible tube with a camera, light, and tiny tools) into your mouth. The tube goes down your throat to your stomach. Then, your doctor uses the endoscope to reduce the size of the stomach.
To support you before and after surgery, clinics offer classes on nutrition, exercise, and adopting healthier habits for life.
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Revision Surgeries
For people who have had one of these surgeries and are not seeing the results they need, clinics offer revision procedures. A revision means that the surgeon is revising a prior gastric procedure to improve your health or weight loss results. These can be challenging operations, so it’s recommended to seek care from an experienced surgical center.
Weight Loss Classes, Education, Counseling, and Support
Helping you improve your relationship with food is a main focus of weight management programs. Clinics offer a wide range of helpful classes, webinars, and support groups. Cognitive behavioral therapy sessions are included with each of the dietary programs. These programs and services are critical to the success of any weight loss plan.
The goal is to educate and empower you to lose weight and keep it off. Licensed psychologists, therapists, dietitians, and doctors lead these sessions, offering:
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT): Through regular group CBT sessions, you’ll learn to control how your body responds to cravings, improve your relationship with food, and change your behaviors. Weight loss experts know that behavioral changes are critical to long-term success. That’s why they address your psychological needs and offer practical advice during weight loss and maintenance.
Diabetes prevention and education: Experts work closely with specialists to treat diabetes complications and improve overall well-being. Whether you’re at risk of developing diabetes or you’ve received a diagnosis, they can help, teaching you how to increase physical activity, reduce stress, and stay motivated.
Healthier Weight Program: This interactive program promotes lifestyle changes for long-term weight management, teaching you several techniques to control cravings and avoid triggers. They also focus on the latest advances in nutrition education and weight management, as well as exercise and stress reduction.
Presurgical classes: People who are having bariatric surgery benefit from a series of pre-op classes that focus on nutrition, physical activity, and what to eat before and after surgery. These classes improve outcomes and greatly increase long-term success.
Program for Reducing Obesity (PRO): This medical weight loss program is open to patients with a BMI of 30 or more. You meet with an endocrinologist for a weight loss history review and evaluation for underlying hormonal disorders. Your endocrinologist will develop a weight loss plan that may include a personalized eating plan, physical activity recommendations, or FDA-approved weight loss medications. The program offers an optional nutrition course.
Programs for Children and Teens
The weight management needs of children and teens are unique. Weight loss clinics may partner with children’s hospitals to prevent and manage obesity in children and adolescents. A multispecialty team includes pediatricians, surgeons, dietitians, and psychologists, partnering with children and their families to deliver treatments that work. They also reach out to children in the community to provide education and increase awareness.
Weight Maintenance Program
Maintaining a healthy weight can be just as challenging as losing weight in the first place. That’s why clinics offer long-term maintenance programs to provide education, support, and accountability. These programs help you keep the weight off.
During meetings with a dietitian, you’ll receive personalized guidance and advice on developing healthy eating patterns. You’ll also have access to several group classes to learn from others and share your experiences.
Choosing a Weight Loss Clinic
When choosing a weight loss clinic, consider the following factors:
- Accreditation: Ensure the clinic is accredited by a reputable organization.
- Team of Experts: Look for a clinic with a multidisciplinary team of experienced physicians, dietitians, psychologists, and exercise physiologists.
- Comprehensive Programs: Choose a clinic that offers a range of services to meet your individual needs.
- Long-Term Support: Select a clinic that provides ongoing support and maintenance programs to help you keep the weight off.
- Success Rates: Research the clinic's success rates and patient testimonials.
What to Expect at a Weight Loss Center
A comprehensive approach means that clinics are dedicated to caring for you throughout the entire weight loss process. When you come to a weight loss center, you can expect:
- An intake visit with a bariatrician (a doctor who specializes in treating obesity) or physician assistant to review your health history.
- An appointment with a dietitian to learn more about your eating habits and patterns.
- A personalized treatment plan for medical weight loss or weight loss surgery, catered to your individual needs.
- Extensive follow-up care and support, whether you’re on the surgical or non-surgical weight loss path.
- Additional support options, such as physical therapy, psychological support, or group sessions. (Online and in-person group sessions are available to support weight management and lifestyle changes.)
- A specialized care team consisting of bariatricians, physician assistants, certified bariatric nurses, registered dietitians, psychologists, and physical therapists.