Weight loss program

A patient called our office this past week, to inquire about the program. At the end of the conversation with my staff, she asked, “what percentage of patients in your program lose weight?” When I heard this question, I was stunned; I thought about it for a moment, and then told my consultant to tell her “all of our patients lose weight.” When you come to our office, you are paying for a service, and the service we give you is to teach you what to eat, and how to lose weight; if we did not give you this service, we would not be in business, so yes, all of our patients lose weight.

I frequently read new articles on the subject of weight loss in Philadelphia; I see these in almost every magazine and newspaper, books, blogs, twitters, online comments and on and on, and am fascinated by the so called “experts” idea of how to lose weight; there is the 30 day weight loss plan. Why thirty days, I wonder, why not 25, or fifty? Why any time deadline at all? Are patients who need to lose 200 lbs on the same time line as those who need to lose 20 lbs? It makes absolutely no sense to me.
Then there is the low carb, hi fat and hi protein diet, the all complex carbs diet, the boot camp exercise 2 to 4 hours a day diet, the eat less than 600 calories per day, and on and on, all the plans out there. Then there are specific recommendations, such as eat piles of nuts, eat no nuts, eat complex grains three to five times per day; never eat starches at all; eat all the fat and protein you want as long as you eat no carbs, count your calories, dont count calories, avoid watermelon and pineapple. It is so confusing, it is a wonder anyone ever loses any weight at all.

So this is what I want to say about medical weight loss in Philadelphia. Medical care and treatment, in the end is very simple; it either works or it does not work. I would tell you if you are on a program and you are not losing weight, then the program is incorrect. IF you have lost a lot of weight on a program and then regained it all, that is not a success. Success is losing it and keeping it off. In our program, I cannot fudge the results we get, I have no magical power over the scale you step on, that will show you have lost weight. The reason our office is so busy, is because the patients here are losing weight, and consistently.

Secondly, there is no formula for weight loss. Cutting out all carbs, eating piles of nuts, eating lots of complex carbs, eating no carbs at all, none of these formulas will work. Why? Because each one of us is unique and different in how we metabolize food. A diabetic is different from a non diabetic. A 60 year old is different from a 20 year old. A patient with PCOS is different from a woman who does not have this. And this is probably the biggest reason that most weight loss programs fail. Because there is no generic formula, no one size fits all weight loss plan. There is only you.

Patients like you come to our office, because you want to know what program will work for you personally. And this is exactly what we give you; and we make changes to this program, as needed, as you lose weight. We help you through plateaus, challenges in your life involving food, answer questions, and teach you an enormous amount of information.
So if you are looking for gimmicks, juices, general ideas and generic formulas, do not come to our clinic. It is not what we do. But if you are looking to find the right answer for your personal body, we invite you to join. And you will be eating healthy foods, from the grocery store. It does not matter if you need to lose 5 lbs or 300 lbs, we have patients in all sizes, and we will help you. This is a program about true weight loss, and permanent weight loss. You have to be ready to make the commitment to your health, and you will have to be mindful about what you eat. But if you are wondering that same question, what percentage of patients in the Balance Weight Loss Program lose weight, the answer is all of our patients lose weight.