Weight Loss: Safe and Effective Approaches and Hidden Causes

By Alan S. Weiss, MD

Annapolis Integrative Medicine

. http://www.annapolisintegrativemedicine.com/

More Weight Control, Nutrition & Exercise Articles

Weight Loss: Safe and Effective Approaches and Hidden Causes

Though many reading this article right now may have struggled with weight loss, one thing is indisputable: any body can lose weight. For each person there is a safe way to lose weight and to keep it off. In order to do so there are a few issues that must be addressed:

Are there underlying medical issues which make it difficult to lose weight? Examples of this are undiagnosed sleep apnea, hypothyroidism, anemia, and other nutritional deficiencies. Without a thorough evaluation to unconceal these issues attempts to lose weight are almost guaranteed to fail.

Are you exercising? Remember, muscle burns calories much more than fat. For every extra pound of muscle you put on, your body uses around 50 extra calories a day. If you have lost muscle mass from not exercising or from medical reasons (like chronic steroid use) it may take very few calories to maintain your body weight. This is why some people claim, truthfully, that they hardly eat, but can’t lose weight.

What are you eating? It is not really calories but where the calories come from that influence a person’s gaining or losing weight. Paying attention to the glycemic index of foods (roughly, how easily the food raises blood sugar) and increasing the amounts of vegetables and fruit can make an enormous difference for people.

Sometimes people are on medications that can produce weight gain and fatigue – these must be addressed as part of an overall program to encourage weight loss.

It is critical to examine our relationship to food. People eat to make themselves happy, to get relief, to reward themselves, to distract themselves etc. Eating becomes automatic, and can be a source of instant gratification – and eternal fat.

There are a number of modalities available to assist patients in losing weight, including detoxification programs ranging from 7-21 days, addressing insulin resistance, and reducing inflammation. A protocol employing a hormone called HCG can be extraordinarily effective in assisting people to lose weight where nothing else has worked, in a very safe and effective way. Using this protocol under the guidance of a physician can increase the likely effectiveness and safety of this protocol.

Two other areas that need to be considered are sleep disorders and hormone issues.

Finally thyroid disorders, as well as male testosterone deficiency and onset of menopause in women are commonly a piece of the puzzle in correcting weight issues.

By utilizing this approach, almost anyone can be successful in losing weight. And when it comes to weight loss, positive results open the door to a whole new future regarding health.