Medical Weight Loss – What It Is and Isn’t

There are dozens of medical weight-loss programs available in the U.S and abroad. While each medical weight-loss company may specialize in or follow a particular methodology, the principle of lifestyle change is at the heart of each program.
Medical weight loss usually refers to the proactive management of diet, fitness, and healthy behaviors conducted by a physician. These programs often include comprehensive metabolic testing to monitor physiological shifts during the course of a program.

While medical weight-loss programs have a much stronger success rate than most self-managed diet regiments, both are often focused on the same essential goal: improving an individual’s nutritional and exercise habits.

The Pritikin Weight-Loss Program – A unique advantage

The Pritikin Longevity Center & Spa provides a unique opportunity to begin and catalyze a medically-managed weight-loss program. The Pritikin Diet – famous for its unparalleled scientifically proven effectiveness – is at the core of the program.

Managing nutrition is a fundamental aspect of medical weight loss that is often overlooked by most consumers who are interested in committing to a program. The key to losing weight is managing diet – consuming foods that are low in fat, low in refined grains and sugars, and high in natural, whole, fiber-rich foods, as taught at the Pritikin health resort in Miami over the past 40 years.

Pritikin maintains a staff of nutritionists and physicians to ensure the Pritikin Diet is followed methodically and effectively – a benefit which is not common in most medical weight-loss programs within the U.S.

Having the guidance, support, and experience from medical professionals who specialize in managing weight loss exclusively through nutrition and exercise, enhanced by lifestyle coaching taught by psychologists, is what separates the Pritikin Weight-Loss Program from other resort-style or intensive conditioning experiences.

Cardiovascular conditioning, strength building, and flexibility training, in addition to nutritional management, are critical components of effective medical weight-loss programs.  Exercise delivers a myriad of profound benefits to the body, particularly in the context of losing weight, as it is a catalyst for metabolic change.

While “getting your body in motion” may seem like common sense for individuals striving to lose weight, certain physical activities are more suited to influence weight loss than others. The Pritikin Longevity Center & Spa maintains a staff of university-degreed physical trainers who are experienced in designing exercise regiments that are custom designed to the individual – designed to work in tandem with the Pritikin Diet to maximize the effectiveness of the weight-loss program.

The Pritikin approach to exercise delivers effective physical conditioning that is wholesome for your body, not overly strenuous or intense like boot camp programs.

Choosing a medical weight-loss program

While there are dozens of medical weight loss programs to choose from, it’s important to evaluate and ultimately select a program that delivers a profound opportunity to encourage and maintain healthy lifestyle change. Proactive physician and nutritionist participation in a medical weight-loss program is key, but the catalyst for change begins with a desire to take weight loss seriously.

The Pritikin Longevity Center & Spa provides the perfect opportunity to learn healthy eating habits, maintain an effective exercise program, and lose weight successfully with the supportive guidance of physicians and nutritionists as well as exercise physiologists, psychologists, healthy cooking chefs, and other expert faculty.

The weight-loss program at Pritikin is designed to help participants lose weight, but most importantly, learn the skills and lifestyle behaviors which will continue weight loss long after the program has concluded. Investing in a stay at the Pritikin Longevity Center & Spa will likely result in weight loss during the course of the experience, but the true benefit is realized in the weeks and months after the program has concluded.

More than 100 studies in prestigious medical journals like the New England Journal of Medicine have documented the Pritikin Program’s extraordinary success in helping thousands worldwide.

Moreover, the most comprehensive study of long-term weight loss ever conducted, the National Weight Control Registry, found that the vast majority of its 4,500-plus successful people followed a program, like Pritikin, that involved daily exercise and an eating plan low in fat and very high in whole, fiber-rich foods like fruits and vegetables. The members lost, on average, 66 pounds and, at five-year follow-up, had kept it off. Less than 1% followed a high-protein, high-fat diet. (Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 98: 480, 1998.)

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