Over the course of your lifetime, you’ve probably lost more pounds than you currently weigh. That’s because traditional diets throw off your metabolism and send you yo-yoing between losing weight, gaining more back, losing weight, and gaining more back — again and again.
As a caring and expert physician, Kimberly Bolling, MD, knows how important a stable weight is for physical and psychological well-being. She also knows that yo-yo dieting wreaks havoc on your health and wears you out emotionally, too. If you’re beginning to believe that you’ll never look or feel fit and healthy, you don’t have to give up. You just need help with weight loss management.
The word “diet” has been saddled with an undeserved bad reputation, thanks to decades of “miracle” weight loss programs and books that promised to help you shed excess fat and pounds quickly, easily, and forever. Unfortunately, those kinds of diets don’t actually accomplish what a healthy diet should: provide your body with all of the nutrients it needs to replenish your cells and keep you healthy.
Instead, traditional weight loss diets restrict your calories and may cut out entire food groups so that you lose water weight, fat and — unfortunately — some muscle, too, at a rapid rate. The problem with restricting calories is that it makes your body think it’s starving.
As soon as you lose the weight, glory in your “new” body, and go back to your old eating habits, your metabolism slows down. Your body then stashes away every calorie it can in the form of new fat, because it doesn’t want you “starving” again. That’s why you often end up heavier a few months after a weight loss diet than you were before.
The definition of “diet” actually just refers to the foods that you eat. A healthy diet should comprise a variety of whole and fresh foods, including:
If you’re not sure how best to nourish your body both in your weight loss phase and in your maintenance phase, Dr. Bolling helps you find a plan that’s best for you. Whenever possible, she conducts a thorough physical examination and blood tests to determine if you have any underlying health issues that need to be resolved.
However, she can also make recommendations via a telehealth consultation so you get customized advice about the changes you need to make to improve your diet, such as eliminating sugar and processed foods from your diet, and replacing them with whole foods.
Just as you do better at work and life when you set a specific goal and a detailed plan on how to reach it, so goal-setting and planning can help you both achieve and maintain your weight loss. Dr. Bolling helps you lose weight very quickly (i.e., up to 20 pounds in just a month or two), but she also helps you come up with a plan for how to keep it off.
Your weight loss and weight maintenance plans should include the types of healthy activities you engage in to keep your body strong while burning whatever calories you do consume. You don’t have to belong to a gym to stay fit, nor do you need a lot of time.
You can walk, run, or work out at home. Dr. Bolling can even recommend online programs, such as high-intensity interval training (HIIT), that take just a few minutes a week.
You should also check in with Dr. Bolling at regular intervals to monitor your weight. She ensures that you’re losing pounds at a healthy rate, are maintaining a stable weight after the initial weight loss, and helps you make healthy choices to revise your diet or activities if you deviate from your routine and start to gain weight again.
Reach a healthy weight for life by scheduling a weight loss management consultation today. Dr. Bolling offers telehealth consultations, too, so you don’t have to come into the office. Call our Bowie, Maryland, office today at 301-352-0090 or request an appointment online. You can also send a message to Dr. Bolling and the team here on our website.
