Weight Loss Management

How Does Being Overweight Affect Your Health?

Extra weight adds stress to your joints and your heart. It also affects your overall health because fat cells release hormones that regulate your metabolism and affect organs throughout your body. As a result, you have a higher risk of developing:

• High blood pressure
• Insulin resistance
• Type 2 diabetes
• Heart disease
• Stroke
• Osteoarthritis
• Sleep apnea
• Some types of cancer

Being overweight also affects your reproductive health. You may have a harder time getting pregnant, then once you’re pregnant, you’re more likely to develop preeclampsia and gestational diabetes. Pregnant women who are overweight also have a higher chance of going into labor early or having a baby who’s large for their gestational age.

Do You Need Weight-Loss Management?

If you want to lose weight and keep it off, weight-loss management can make the difference between success and failure. People who participate in weight-loss management stick with their goals and maintain weight loss longer because they have the benefit of encouragement, information, and accountability.

The team at Women’s Healthcare Physicians of Naples can assess your overall health, run tests for hormone imbalances that may influence your weight, and check for nutritional deficiencies. Then they follow through with a comprehensive weight-loss plan.

What Weight-Loss Services Should You Expect?

Weight-management services should always include the basics of healthy weight loss:

• Calorie Control: Weight loss depends on limiting the number of calories you consume.
• Nutrition Review: Adequate nutrition is essential for maintaining energy and staying healthy, yet it’s hard to get all your nutrients while cutting calories. A balanced meal plan and nutritional evaluation to see if you need supplements can help.
• Exercise: Physical activity helps you maintain a healthy weight, boosts your mood, strengthens bones, and lowers your risk for diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease.
• Lifestyle: High levels of stress and too little sleep contribute to weight gain. It’s important to find ways to alleviate these issues if they apply to your life.

Your doctor at Women’s Healthcare Physicians of Naples may also prescribe weight-loss medications. When they’re taken for a limited time – and used with diet and exercise – medications can help you lose 5-10% of your original body weight.

Various medications that work different ways are available. They may suppress your appetite, help you feel full, reduce food cravings, or reduce fat absorption.