Many people struggle with their weight, and they are always trying to lose a few pounds or that last 20 pounds. Losing just a few stubborn pounds that won't go away probably doesn't affect your health, just your psyche and the way that you look. However, those with much more to lose are often at risk for many types of medical problems because of that extra weight. When this is the case, most doctors will put patients on specific diets to help with medical weight loss. This scenario is more than vanity. It is about avoiding some very serious complications.

When your doctor suggests medical weight loss, you are not going to get the sales pitch that you would get anywhere else. There are a lot of diets out there, ones that advertise on television all of the time. Sadly, many of them do not work, or they only work for certain people. This is because everyone is different, your body is different, and the reasons why you have gained weight is probably different as well. When you go in for medical weight loss, your doctor will cut through all the bull and put you on whatever eating and exercise plan that he or she thinks will work the best for you.

You may be given a medication to help with medical weight loss, but that is not always the case. There are very few medications that really help, and they are not for everyone. Though herbs and other supplements promise results, your doctor may not think they are safe for you for a variety of reasons. Many weight loss drugs, weight loss herbs and weight loss supplements have come and gone, but few things have been proven to help over the years. Medical weight loss may contain medication, but for the most part it is going to be about your eating habits and exercise.

Medical weight loss is not about making you look like a super model, but you still should be happy with the results. However, your doctor may be looking for an overall reduction of at least 10% when you undergo medical weight loss. That amount is enough to improve your health enough to negate some problems you could have. The doctor may want to you to lose more, but that first 10% is going to have great benefits to your health. If you can get up to 20% or even 50%, things are going to look even better.

Commentary by Dr. Donna

Many weight loss diets contain drugs as part of their program. That's why they charge a lot more money than traditional weight loss programs such as Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, and Nutri-System. Recently I found a medical weight loss clinic that was looking for a physician to supervise it here on the west coast. I quickly discovered that the reason why they could only utilize the services of a M.D. was because drugs had to be prescribed. They didn't divulge the drugs they were using, and I knew that they also wouldn't consider any physician who was not able to prescribe drugs.

Diets that utilize drugs have always been pretty suspicious to me. It means that they are depending on that drug to force the body to lose weight.

Recently though, I discovered an Arizona medical weight loss clinic that was utilizing transdermal hormonal creams, prescription of course, that was extremely effective in producing weight loss in a relatively safe way. The Arizona medical weight loss clinic plan included diet and exercise. They even hired FDA personnel to test their diet plan's effectiveness and results showed a 97% effectiveness rate. The hormonal creams were very safe and many people were able to lose one half pound a day, regularly.

I worked with this company for quite awhile so I had a chance to see first hand results and would recommend their diet in a heartbeat.

Back to the article, the author mentions that you won't get a sales pitch from a medical weight loss program, but this may not be true. Many medical doctors are struggling to make ends meet just like other businesses and they do not have a code of ethics against trying to make people sign up for their program. The good thing is that most doctors are definitely not born salesmen!

However, they may hire sales staff. We would like to believe that they do have your best interests at heart and it is true that losing weight is certainly the best way to decrease triglycerides, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and blood sugar levels. The sooner you do this, the quicker your health improves.

Research has found that decreasing one's weight (when overweight) 10% does improve lab test findings. The extra weight puts a strain on all organs and research is now finding that fat tissue acts as a hormone, causing havoc with many body systems, including the immune system.

Are the Weight Loss Herbs and Supplements Safe?

The author of the article mentions that herbs and supplements may not be considered safe for your specific weight loss by your doctor. This statement is partially true. A medical doctor is not trained in herbs and supplements and by law, he or she cannot prescribe them. Therefore, he or she will generally refrain from recommending them.

Don't go to medical doctors for advice on herbs and supplements. Remember that a medical doctor takes ZERO classes on herbs and only 40% of the medical schools even require one class on nutrition. Nutrition is a complicated specialty, and for a medical doctor to consider that he or she understands the subject after taking a class in it and supplementing that class with a few weekend seminars is asking for trouble. Go to experts on the topic you search information and assistance on.

When Does Your Health Improve When You Lose Weight?

It is true that even losing 10% of your body weight can result in improved health if you are overweight. To give you some numbers, if you are 200 pounds and should weigh 140 pounds, 10% of 200 is 20 pounds. You would notice a big improvement in health from a 20 pound weight loss to 180 pounds.

Then the next phase of your weight loss would be 10% of 180 pounds, which is 18 pounds. Reaching a weight of 162 pounds will be associated with another jump in the level of your health. An additional loss of 10%, or another 16 pounds brings you pretty close to your ideal weight of 140 when you weigh in at 146 pounds. And at this additional 10% drop in weight, your blood pressure, high cholesterol, high triglycerides and blood sugar levels should be very close to normal unless there are underlying health issues that have not been addressed.

Many people end up getting off many prescription medications simply by dropping body weight, 10% at a time. You can do the same!

Email me if you are interested in that Arizona medical weight loss clinic.