If You Struggle with Your Weight
Hi and welcome. I am Dr. Craig Primack. I’m a physician and Co-Managing Partner of Scottsdale Weight Loss Center. In addition, I am the President of the Obesity Medicine Association. If you are here listening to this video, you or someone you know struggles with their weight.
If you have struggled losing weight or keeping it off and haven’t tried using an Obesity Medicine Clinician for helping you with weight loss, I will recommend now that you do so.
Obesity Medicine Clinicians
Obesity Medicine Clinicians are physicians who are certified by the American Board of Obesity Medicine to have special training in treating people to help them lose weight and to keep it off, to help increase their longevity, their health on a daily basis and overall feeling of wellness. Studies have shown that people who struggle with their weight are trying to lose weight, but on your own are being unsuccessful. Most people, again, the studies have shown, are trying about 2.2 times per year and can sometimes lose weight, but can’t keep it off. And other people have even trouble trying to lose weight. So people that are trained, physicians, nurse practitioners, and PAs, in obesity medicine use what we call the four pillars of weight loss.
The Four Pillars of Weight Loss
First Pillar: Nutrition Therapy
The first pillar is nutrition therapy. Nutrition therapy is a way to decrease calories in a way that will work for you and be sustainable. In my practice, I do use a lot of meal replacements. I use a very particular kind of meal replacements that we call medical nutrition therapy. They can be used as a full meal replacement. We can give a break from food for a period of time and you can sustain and lose a good amount of weight and even exercise on bars and shakes and soups made with good protein. I also have a lot of people who don’t have time to cook or travel around with their kids and such, don’t want to run to the grocery store, or don’t even like to cook and meal replacements do help that. But of course, that is not the only dietary method that we use.
Second Pillar: Medications
The second pillar are medications. Now, I use that in two forms. One, if you are on medications, both prescribed by a physician or nurse practitioner or over the counter and they cause weight gain, the first thing I want to do is find an alternative and help you to switch over to the non-weight gaining alternative, as long as, again, it’s equivalent. And the second part of that is to put you on medicines, and there’s newer ones all the time, that help us decrease our weight. Most of the time they work by decreasing our appetite, because as I ask you to change your diet and be a little more active, sometimes it makes us more hungry. When we’re more hungry, it’s hard to stick to that diet. If we can turn off the appetite centers, we do much better.
Third Pillar: Activity
Third pillar is activity. There are many, many people who do adequate activity. If you aren’t doing regular movement, whether that’s exercise or movement, then we start with basic counseling. If you are someone who’s doing it regularly, we just want to tweak it a little bit to make sure you’re getting the most benefit for the time you’re spending.
Fourth Pillar: Behavior Change
And the fourth pillar is behavior change. In my clinic, specifically, we use PhD-level psychologists as well as registered dietitians. All have specialized training in helping people with their weight loss. We talk about topics such as emotional eating, stress eating, boredom eating, avoidant eating. Learn about eating in restaurants. Explore how to do the changes that you’re making long term. So it’s not only you’re losing weight, but you are able to keep it off.
If You Struggle with Your Weight
So if you are struggling with your weight, or if you know someone who is struggling with their weight and want to help them, the first thing to do is find a clinician. I will recommend the Obesity Medicine Association website at obesitymedicine.org. Across the top it says, find a clinician. Click on the link. Enter at least the first three numbers of your zip code and find people who are certified, who live somewhere near you. Research them a little bit. And if you’re comfortable visiting with them, then call them up and get started on a comprehensive, medically-based weight loss program.
Thank you for being here today.
Good luck on your weight loss journey.
Have a great rest of your day.
