Medical Weight Loss

What is medical weight loss?  Medical weight loss differs from surgical weight loss, in that it does not utilize any type of surgical procedure.  While surgery is a good option for some, weight loss can be achieved without it.  Research has shown that permanent weight loss is most successful when a person commits to a structured program in a medical setting, with a team that is trained in the treatment of obesity and overweight.  We provide weekly one on one visits with our Director of Nutrition, and monthly medical visits with Dr. Costello to monitor medications, blood tests, weight, blood pressure and general health concerns. We provide you with a Body Composition scale that transmits your data to our iOs/Android Application, so the team can monitor your weight and other measurements.  High quality meal replacements are used to ensure rapid, safe and steady loss of fat, while protecting against loss of lean muscle.  For our medical program, we use New Direction® products, which are only available to physicians. The most important aspect of any program is the ongoing support once the weight is lost.  Statistics reveal that many individuals will tend to regain after reaching goal weight, unless they continue within a strong maintenance program.

Here at NorthShore Weight and Metabolism we utilize an effective four phase approach:

1. Screening  This evaluation will include blood work, an EKG, a clearance form from your PCP, and a visit with Dr. Costello.  
2. Reducing This is the active weight loss phase of the program.  You replace some or all of your meals with delicious, nutritionally complete meal replacements.    Most people can expect to lose between 2 and 5 pounds each week. If you opt for a less aggressive plan, we can modify the plan and add some grocery food to your day.  
3. Adapting This phase gradually reintroduces grocery foods when you reach your goal weight.  Participants practice newly acquired eating, exercise, and lifestyle behaviors as they lose their last few pounds, so their new behaviors can become permanent behaviors.
4.  Sustaining When you have successfully transitioned to grocery food, we will continue to support and guide you using relapse prevention techniques in our S.T.A.R program: Steps Against Regain.  Patients continue to see our Director of Nutrition at a frequency thought best for the individual- ranging from weekly initially, to biweekly, monthly or quarterly.