If you are like most American adults, you have struggled at some point during your life with your weight. Obesity has become an epidemic in the United States. Nearly 36% of people around the country are considered to be overweight or obese. As a consequence, diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease are on the rise. These are some of the reasons that more and more Americans are seeking treatment for their weight loss problems at medical weight loss centers around the nation.

What Is Medical Weight Loss?

While most of us want to lose a few pounds, treatment at medical weight loss centers is not for everyone. When you see a weight loss doctor, they will ask you a series of questions to determine if they can help you. There are a number of different options for treatment at medical weight loss centers so the questions they ask you will depend on the kinds of treatments you are considering. Some people who are not good candidates for bariatric surgery, for instance, may be good ones for hCG weight loss.

The staff at the medical weight loss centers will ask if you:

• Suffer from a serious health condition that is caused by your weight problem. These can include non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, sleep apnea, heart disease, diabetes (or pre-diabetes) and weight-induced endometrial problems.
• Are a severely overweight or clinically obese child, adult or adolescent.
• Have had or are considering knee or hip replacement surgery that would have a better outcome if you lost some weight.
• Have had yourself or have a family history of any kind of weight related or caused cancer. These cancers include breast, endometrial, colon and prostate cancers. Cancers caused by non-weight related issues would not qualify you for treatment at any of the medical weight loss centers.
• Need to lose weight for a more healthy pregnancy.
• Need to lose weight to prepare yourself for a bariatric procedure.
• The medical professionals will also want to see that you are dedicated to leading a more healthy lifestyle. Most weight loss doctors will tell you that as effective and great as certain procedures such as liposuction are, they are not the last stop on the road to longterm weight loss. Liposuction for men and women is often seen as a first step. If it is not matched with positive changes in your eating and exercise habits, it will be doomed to fail from the start.
• Have been told that you are at risk for these conditions if you do not succeed at losing some weight.

If you are considering bariatric surgery, you have a number of different options and need to answer a number of different questions. This is serious surgery that has implications that will last the rest of your life. While surgeries like a gastric bypass do produce dramatic weight loss results, this needs to be accompanied by a change in a person’s lifestyle. In the first place, eating habits have to change after the surgery in order to make sure those weight loss goals are met and can be maintained. It is much easier than people realize for people to gain back all of the weight they lose right after their weight loss surgery.

Treatment at medical weight loss centers can be as varied and diverse as the people who are receiving it. Not every treatment works or is best for every person. You need to talk over your options with your doctor and family to find a program and plan that will work best for you. At the end of the day, losing weight and maintaining weight loss is a bigger issue than what pants or other clothes you can fit into or how you look. Being overweight or obese carries serious health risks that have nothing ti do with vanity. If you have tried and failed to lose weight and are starting to be concerned about the impact your weight may be having on your health, you should make an appointment to go in and see your doctor. It is easy to dismiss the need for real weight loss but your doctor can help you if you are ready.