We often see individuals who are apprehensive about starting yet another weight loss program. This is due to many of these patients being let down over and over by other weight loss services, fad diets, and expensive meal plans.

When they search for a new, effective program like ours at Northwest weight loss in Bloomington, they often have many questions regarding how it works and how we can offer such an affordable one. We’ve asked our top weight loss doctor to help answer these questions and provide clarity for those considering our program.

If you’re looking for the best weight loss program that’s Doctor approved, call us at (952) 900-4228 to schedule your weight loss consultation.

The medication we provide, or prescription therapy as we often call it, is essentially a protein. This protein naturally occurs within the body but, over time, begins to diminish. The naturally occurring protein, also known as a peptide, is released as you eat and signals to your brain that you are full. As this protein diminishes, it takes longer for your body to receive the signal causing you to still feel hungry while eating large meals. Our medication increases the amount of this peptide in your body, leaving you feeling full and satisfied after small meals.

We give patients the first dose of the medication at their first visit, and many patients begin feeling the effects as soon as the following day. In my medical career, I’ve found this therapy to be one of the most impactful to patients. The results are almost immediate.

We start patients at a quarter dose and eventually work them up to a half dose, then a full dose. As the dosage increases, so will the effects and results. However, even at just a quarter of a dose, you will feel the medication’s effects.

In today’s climate, medication costs have skyrocketed. Oftentimes medications will cost someone $1,500 to $2,000 a month. Not all patients can afford such a hefty price tag. For example, single mother Shannon who desperately wants to lose weight but is on a limited income.

I believe this new class of medication—proteins and peptides—will change the face of medicine. Unfortunately, as this class grows in popularity, commercial advertising and the development of medicine do too. We work directly with our compounding pharmacy and rely heavily on word of mouth. I had a small practice in rural Minnesota where I had over 900 patients.

Our therapy is a combination of protein and B12. We can blend these two together in various amounts to work best for each patient. The protein does the bulk of the work, ensuring you feel full after eating small portions, while the B12 boosts your mood and energy.

Before we discuss side effects, I would like to say that all medications have side effects. In the medical field as a weight loss doctor, I’ve dealt with weight loss prescriptions, like Phentermine and Adipex, with significant side effects like increased heart rate and jitteriness.

For the first two weeks, I tell patients to expect some instances of loose stools, which are very mild. In less than 5% of patients, I will prescribe Zofran to help with nausea, but this is rare. The overall risk of taking this medication is very low. Patients who have been on the medication for some time, around four to five months, may experience some constipation and mild indigestion. Throughout my time working with patients at our weight loss clinic, there have been very few that felt they needed to stop taking the therapy due to nausea or diarrhea.

What we commonly see is those with a higher weight and body mass index often lose weight quicker than patients with a lower BMI and weight. Higher BMI patients tend to see the weight come off rapidly, while lower BMI patients lose weight at a nice, consistent rate, just not as quickly as those with more weight to lose.

As this medication is protein-based, there are very few contraindications. Some factors or health conditions that would disqualify someone from the weight reduction program include previous history of thyroid cancer, a history of MEN1 (a rare abdominal cancer), and frequent pancreatitis. There are very few factors that would prevent someone from receiving this non surgical weight loss method and that’s part of what makes doctor supervised weight loss unique.

While you are consuming smaller portion sizes, the standard portion size for most foods is what fits in the palm of your hand. Essentially, your body will take in the portion size it was designed to handle. For patients in the 270 to 300 or higher range, I make it mandatory for them to take a multivitamin due to the rapid weight loss. However, I’ve never had to say that someone needs to take a multivitamin because they are undernourishing themselves.

All of my patients have seen results from this proven weight reduction program. However, I believe all doctors have one or two patients that stand out. For me, this stand-out patient was a young single mother who came to me weighing around 400 to 415 pounds. The stresses in her day-to-day life primarily caused her weight gain. On top of being a single mother, she had also been evicted from her home.

Within her first month on the program, she had lost around 17 pounds. As the months went on, I saw her demeanor change. She began to perk up more and more with each visit. She lost over 100 pounds and was no longer in need of knee surgery. She could now bound around the office with ease. I remember her saying something along the lines of, “Instead of me looking at 55 years, now I’m looking at 75 years.”

Compared to the standard methods and weight loss products, and what was thought of as the only methods for weight loss, this medication is quite profound. Rather than crash dieting, undergoing surgery, or taking medications that are essentially legalized speed, our patients learn portion control. They don’t walk around all day with hunger pangs because they feel satiated after eating a meal.

I now stand by this doctor prescribed weight loss program and believe it is the op form of medical weight loss.

My personal experience with the medication is what started the whole process. When I began working at a new practice, my colleague Tom gently nudged me and said I had become overweight. He was trying to help push me to lose weight.

At the time, Tom was fit and trim, but he had shown me an old picture of him when he was obese. He began to tell me about his research with peptides. Through this, we developed the protein-based medication. I went on to lose 42 pounds.