What Is Weight Management?

More than one in three adults in the United States are overweight, and 17% of kids and adolescents fit in that category as well.

These are troubling statistics, especially when you realize that obesity isn’t just a problem itself — it can also lead to all sorts of other health problems, including diabetes, stroke, heart disease, kidney disease, and more.

At Physician’s Medical Primary Care, we want to help you in achieving your weight loss goals through a process we call weight management. Here’s how it works:

What is healthy weight loss?

If you are overweight, it’s normal to want to get the weight off as quickly as possible, and there are weight loss methods that will help you do that. The problem with most of these methods, though, is that they’re not sustainable. The pounds often come back on as quickly as they went off.

Instead of a lose-weight-quickly scheme, our weight management approach helps you modify your lifestyle so you can maintain a healthy body weight based on your age, height, and gender, and chronic diseases. The main tools we use to accomplish this goal are a healthy diet and a regular routine of physical activity.

Approaching weight loss this way is a challenge that requires commitment, but it’s worth doing because it’s the only method that truly gets results.

What should I expect?

Our plan focuses mainly on two areas: nutrition and exercise. In the end, your weight comes down to the amount of calories that go in, and the amount of activity you undertake to burn some of those calories.

In regard to nutrition, we advise you to eat a balanced diet with fruit, vegetables, lean proteins, whole grains, and plenty of water. To help you stick to your plan, you should work out your meals and snacks for the week ahead of time and then shop from that list. Keep your portion sizes small and avoid overeating. Low-calorie snacks, like fruits and vegetables, can help get you through the day as well. It’s okay to have some treats, but keep your intake of sweets low and focus on enjoying what you do have instead of missing what you don’t have.

As far as exercise, it’s difficult to get a lot of physical activity when you’re very overweight, so start small with just a walk around the block. The key is to get moving. As you gradually lose weight and gain muscle, you can increase the frequency and intensity of your workouts.

Please be sure to speak with your doctor before beginning a new weight management approach. To get started with your weight management plan, contact Physicians Medical Primary Care by calling our office in San Jose or setting an appointment with our convenient online scheduler.