You know you should lose weight to improve your overall health. You want to lose weight, because you miss the body you had when you were younger, or you yearn for a body that can fit more easily in the kinds of clothes that you like.
Whatever your reasons for wanting to lose weight are, it’s not always an easy goal to reach alone. You may be actually addicted to foods, such as sugar, that guarantee you gain weight and keep it on. You may also have hormonal imbalances that make it hard to build muscle and lose fat.
At Enrich Family Practice, our expert nurse practitioners work with you to custom-design a medically supervised weight loss program you use for life. We don’t “starve” you into shape. We guide you toward permanent lifestyle changes that help you lose weight and keep it off. We may also give you an extra boost with hormone therapy or fat-burning medications.
Do you need professional help with your weight loss? Following are five signs that you might.
Yoyo dieting refers to the frustrating back-and-forth momentum of first losing your goal weight and then gaining it back. Or, worse, gaining back more than you lost.
The yoyo effect takes place when you attempt to lose weight by cutting calories. You may restrict the kinds of food you eat or change the amounts. But starving yourself isn’t just uncomfortable; it triggers a panic attack in your body.
Your body interprets the diet as a starvation state. Sure, you lose weight and feel great … for a moment. But when you return to a normal eating pattern, your body clings to each calorie as if to a life raft, storing fat for the next starvation period.
Type 2 diabetes is a lifestyle-related disease from eating foods that don’t sufficiently nourish your body despite their high-calorie content. Foods high in sugars or simple starches raise your blood glucose levels, putting you at risk for diabetes.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), women who are overweight (body mass index [BMI] of 30 or more) are at a 28% increased risk for Type 2 diabetes. The risk jumps to 93% for those whose BMI is 35 or more.
Sleep apnea is a dangerous sleep-breathing disorder in which you stop breathing multiple times per night or only take shallow, insufficient breaths. Sleep apnea dramatically increases your risk for heart attack and stroke.
You’re much more likely to have sleep apnea if you’re overweight or obese because the extra fat in your face and neck closes down your airways at night. Losing weight usually improves sleep apnea.
It’s harder to lift a heavy rock than a light one, right? The same is true for your body. When you carry too much weight, your entire body is stressed, including your cardiovascular system. Your muscles have to strain harder to move you, and your heart pumps harder, too.
Heart disease is the number one cause of death for women and men in the United States. Every 40 seconds, somebody somewhere has a heart attack in the US.
Women who have a waist circumference of greater than 35 inches are at increased risk for cardiovascular disease and Type 2 diabetes, which in turn raises the risk for heart disease. When men who have a healthy BMI of 22 add just five inches to their waists, their risk for heart disease increases by 16%.
You need support and guidance if you’ve given up on ever losing weight and have resigned yourself to accepting your body despite the health risks. You don’t have to fit into size two jeans to be healthy (you might not be healthy if you can!). You simply need to be a good weight for your frame and height.
It’s difficult to make major lifestyle changes and reshape your body alone. Our medical weight loss program is customized to your current fitness level and many of your food preferences and is designed as a team effort. You’re not alone.
We help you stay on track with regular visits. We may even prescribe medications that help you burn fat more quickly so that you see results that keep you motivated.
Do you need support to gain and maintain a healthy weight? Contact us by phone at 432-200-9052 for a weight-loss consultation or use our online form today.
