Help! Why Can't I Lose Weight?

Losing weight is a process, and not always an easy one. Of course, you need to eat a healthy, low-calorie diet and engage in an exercise regimen to burn off calories. But many people find that, despite following all the rules, they still can’t drop the pounds.

Worse, the extra weight may cause problems from difficulty sleeping to chronic pain to an increased risk for many diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes.

Fortunately, there’s a new player in the weight loss field, a medication called semaglutide. A repurposed diabetes drug, it’s been helping people all over the world lose the weight that diet and exercise alone couldn’t touch.

At the offices of Dr. Michael Kullman, our staff understands the difficulties that accompany weight loss, which is why we offer a medically supervised weight loss program that uses semaglutide as one of the tools to help you on your journey. If you’re having trouble dropping the pounds, here’s what you need to know about our program.

The problems with overweight and obesity

Overweight and obesity are serious medical problems. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), they consist of having “excessive fat accumulation that presents a risk to health.” Body mass index (BMI) is a tool that’s used to determine excessive body fat. A BMI of over 25 is classified as overweight, and a BMI of more than 30 is classified as obese.

Serious health outcomes accompany both overweight and obesity. For 2019, the WHO estimates that five million deaths were caused due to a high BMI from noncommunicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates that, in the US, one in five children and one in three adults are obese, putting them at increased risk for heart disease, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, and some forms of cancer.

What is medical weight loss?

Trying to lose weight on your own can be difficult, even when you’re committed to eating well and exercising sufficiently. You have no way of knowing which macro- or micronutrients you might be deficient in, how your body stores and metabolizes fat, and which diet plan complements your physiology best.

It’s also easy to fall off the wagon, sneaking in an extra treat now and then, or not exercising when you don’t feel like it. Nobody is supervising you but you.

Medically supervised weight loss is a doctor-supervised program that gives you all the information you need to make smart choices about your diet and the type of exercise that fits best with your body type and lifestyle.

We start with a complete medical history, including past dieting attempts and their results, perform a physical exam, and do blood tests to determine if you’re deficient in any nutrients. Then, we draw up an individualized treatment plan that also takes your weight loss goals into account.

We not only provide nutritional counseling and exercise advice, but we also provide support and accountability. You have regular weigh-ins, so both you and we know if you’re sticking to your plan or if you’ve hit a plateau and need a change of plan.

What about semaglutide?

If, despite all your dieting and exercising, you aren’t meeting your weight loss goals, we can prescribe medications like semaglutide to help.

Semaglutide is a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonist, originally FDA-approved in 2017 as the injectable Ozempic® for adults living with type 2 diabetes. A few years later, the FDA approved an oral pill version, Rybelsus®.

What was interesting was that diabetics using semaglutide also tended to lose weight, so researchers began to look at that effect. The FDA approved the medication, though at a higher dose, as Wegovy® in 2021 for chronic weight management. The largest clinical trial of the drug showed that adults taking it lost an average of almost 15% of their initial body weight — about 12% more than those who didn’t take it.

More recently, semaglutide (also as Wegovy) was approved for cardiovascular benefits in adults with heart disease who are overweight or obese.

Semaglutide works by slowing the rate of gastric emptying, targeting brain areas that regulate appetite, and reducing cravings for sweet and salty foods.

If you’re having trouble losing weight, don’t despair – the office of Dr. Michael Kullman can help. Call us at 914-465-2882 to schedule a consultation, or visit our website for more options.