If you’re carrying around extra pounds, you’re not alone. According to the National Institutes of Health, about 30% of adults in the United States are overweight, 42% are obese, and 9% are severely obese.
Excess weight isn’t just an appearance issue. Weighing more than is healthy can contribute to a wide range of medical conditions, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and some kinds of cancer, to name a few examples.
Like most people, you’ve probably tried losing weight on your own or following popular diets. Those approaches can sometimes work. But when they don’t, receiving guidance, care, and support from experienced medical practitioners can go a long way toward helping you achieve your weight goals.
At Princeton Sports and Family Medicine, P.C. of Lawrenceville, New Jersey, our sports medicine and primary care providers can help you eliminate excess weight and reduce your risk of developing weight-related medical conditions. Our practice has created a multifaceted lifestyle-based approach that helps our patients lose weight and improve their health. Here, we provide details about this approach.
It’s not easy to lose excess weight — if it were, overweight and obesity rates wouldn’t be so high, and some people wouldn’t be struggling. Our providers understand that successful weight loss requires a multifaceted approach that incorporates several approaches to weight loss. These approaches include four features:
When it comes to weight loss, our providers use bloodwork and other types of laboratory monitoring to learn more about how the conditions in your body may be affecting your ability to lose weight. For example, we perform thyroid blood testing to check to see if your thyroid is functioning correctly. Having an underactive thyroid (hypothyroidism) can make it difficult to lose weight.
Similarly, we perform laboratory testing to determine whether you have medical conditions related to weight gain, such as high cholesterol or type 2 diabetes.
Our providers track the medications you’re taking to ensure they aren’t contributing to your weight gain. What’s more, we analyze your use of prescription and non-prescription medications, as well as nutritional and herbal supplements, to make sure they are the right medications for you.
Medications sometimes interact or interfere with each other and can cause detrimental side effects.
In cases where you could benefit from taking weight-loss drugs, we evaluate your situation to determine which medication might be right for you. We also work with you to manage potential side effects. For a full description of the various drugs approved for weight loss, click here.
Losing weight isn’t just about taking in fewer calories. It’s about changing your behaviors.
Behavioral therapy offers an effective way to train yourself to adopt healthy new behaviors and let go of negative habits related to your weight. Some components of behavioral therapy include tracking your food intake, setting realistic goals, and creating an environment that supports healthy eating and exercise behaviors.
Our providers don’t believe in one-size-fits-all diet and exercise plans. We work with you to create eating and activity plans that you can follow (and even enjoy!) to help you reach your weight loss goals.
Trying to lose weight on your own can feel very isolating. When you work in collaboration with our caring providers at Princeton Sports and Family Medicine, you have a team of devoted care providers who support you at every step of your weight loss journey.
To schedule an appointment for a weight loss evaluation, call our office at (609) 248-6520 or request an appointment online.
