Despite following a diet plan, many people fail to successfully lose weight. Over 95% of those who try dieting regain the weight they lose within two years, meaning their diets did not work. That’s because many diets encourage calorie restriction, which can bring short-term weight loss but remain unsuccessful for maintenance. It can also slow your metabolism as your body gets used to eating less.Luckily, there’s a more effective way to lose weight: medical weight loss. When dieting, exercising, and other common weight loss methods don’t work, it’s time to consider taking medicine that could help you achieve your goal weight. To find out more about medical weight loss and how you can boost its effectiveness, keep reading below.What is medical weight loss?Sometimes, dieting and exercising aren’t enough to make you lose weight. Many factors, such as your genes and underlying medical conditions, can prevent you from doing so. That’s where medical weight loss comes in. This is a process where you’ll be evaluated by medical advisers to determine what’s hindering your weight loss and what prescription medicines you should take to address them.People who qualify for this are those who are obese—individuals with a BMI over 30. However, you’ll also be eligible if you have a BMI over 27 and a qualifying health condition, such as type 2 diabetes. Some of the FDA-approved weight loss medicines you can expect to be prescribed are Semaglutide—a weekly injection for weight management—and Orlistat, a thrice-daily pill preventing fat absorption.While taking these medicines will help you lose weight, you can further boost their effectiveness with these practices:Tips to boost the effectiveness of medical weight lossMaintain a healthy dietMaintaining a healthy diet prevents you from gaining weight, which could reverse your progress. Additionally, eating healthily ensures that your body can process the medicine properly.If you’re taking Ozempic, an injection that lowers blood sugar, you must eat vegetables and healthy proteins first and reserve carbs toward the end of your meal. This is more beneficial for your blood sugar since it’s more efficient for regulating glucose levels post-meal. If you’re prescribed Semaglutide to reduce your appetite, eat healthier food to guarantee you’re getting enough nutrients despite eating less. Overall, a balanced diet should help your weight loss medicines do their job.Keep exercisingWhile weight loss medicines reduce your hunger and prevent fat absorption, you must exercise to burn the excess fat contributing to your current weight. This way, you can boost the effectiveness of the medications you’re taking.However, there’s another vital reason for you to exercise: a recent study found that Semaglutide takers who don’t participate in resistance training risk losing not just fat but muscle, too. This can make doing simple tasks like grocery shopping more taxing. It can also lower your ability to recover from illness and injury. Since all these things can hinder the success of medical weight loss and harm your overall health in the long run, it’s vital to exercise regularly.Store your medicine properlyA small habit affecting the effectiveness of your weight loss medicines lies in how you store them. Improper storage practices can decrease their effectiveness. For example, the appetite-reducing weight loss medicine Saxenda—administered via pen—must be refrigerated at a temperature of 36-46°F. It shouldn’t be stored in a freezer, as these typically have a 0°F temperature and can render the medicine ineffective.It’s also vital to keep such pens in their original packaging until before use. This will protect it from external elements, like heat and sunlight, that can impact its effectiveness. Be sure to ask your doctor how to best store your weight loss medicines
