Weight Management

There is one main fundamental principle of healthy weight management: balancing the food you eat with physical activity. Losing weight and maintaining a healthy body will reduce your risk for disease, improve your appearance, and give you a great sense of well-being.

Where do you start to lose weight?
You may know you need to lose weight, but sometimes it is tough to get started. Our trained weight management specialists can work with you in developing a weight management plan in the context of other important health decisions.

Factors effecting the plan may include:
Do you have a personal or family history of heart disease?
Are you a man older than age 45 or a woman past menopause?
Do you smoke cigarettes?
Do you have high blood pressure?
Do you have a sedentary lifestyle?

So how much weight should you lose?

First of all, if you are overweight, loss of 5 to 15 percent of your body weight may improve many of the problems linked to being overweight, such as diabetes and high blood pressure. You usually do not have to reach your ideal weight to get the health benefits. Achieving an ideal Body Mass Index is not always realistic or desirable.

Slow and steady weight loss of no more than one pound per week is the safest way to lose weight. Your goal should be to lose about 10 percent of your weight over about six months. For people with BMIs in the range of 25 to 35, this means a decrease in 300 to 500 calories per day. This will result in a weight loss of between one and two kilograms a month.

There is a temptation to take drastic measures to lose lots of weight quickly once you know you are overweight. This is a mistake. If you lose weight really quickly, you are likely to lose muscle rather than fat and also increase your chances of developing other health issues such as gout and gallbladder problems.

Many people gain and lose weight in 'yo-yo' fashion throughout their lives. With each cycle it takes longer to lose the same amount of weight and less time to regain it. For people who gain and lose in this way, maintenance may be the key to permanent weight loss along with a well-planned and appropriate exercise program. For many people, once the exercise component is in place, making good food choices becomes more of a way of life and weight becomes easier to manage. Our team can ensure that you get the appropriate program put in place which is suited for your specific needs to help you lose the weight and keep it off.