Obesity can present serious challenges to your health and well-being and it isn’t just about numbers – it’s about quality of life, the things you love doing, and the years you want to spend with the people who matter most to you.
The gold standard for significant, sustainable weight loss has traditionally been bariatric, or gastric bypass, surgery. But surgery isn’t for everyone. It’s a radical intervention that permanently alters your anatomy, and while the benefits can be life-changing, so are the lifelong challenges – nutritional deficiencies being just one of them.
This is where GLP-1s offer a promising alternative. In clinical studies, the weight loss achieved with these medications has been very encouraging, particularly in the first year of use. They allow us to tackle obesity and its related health risks without the need for invasive surgery. As we continue to learn more, GLP-1s may provide a bridge between lifestyle changes and the dramatic outcomes seen with gastric bypass surgery.
Looking beyond weight loss.
However, as we dive deeper, there are a few key observations worth noting. First, while these medications can kickstart significant weight loss, after about a year, the results tend to hit a plateau. This is your body’s way of adapting to the changes brought about by the medication.
Even more importantly: these medications don’t “cure” weight issues. They work as long as you keep taking them. If you stop, the weight tends to creep back, and not just a little bit. On average, research shows that within a year of stopping the medication, most people regain 70% of the weight they initially lost.
What concerns me most is that many people who take these medications never reach a truly healthy weight. Instead, they find themselves stuck in a cycle of dependency, where they need the drug to maintain progress but never fully break free. That’s not a sustainable solution.
A personalized approach to health and wellness.
This is why the solution isn’t just a prescription – it’s a partnership between science and lifestyle. By making meaningful changes to your diet, lifestyle, environment, and sleeping habits and understanding how these affect you, you can move beyond the plateau and set yourself up for long-term success. If these areas aren’t addressed, your body’s natural tendency will be to regain the weight you worked so hard to lose.
My hope is that GLP-1 medications become insignificant in our future world – their use as an antidote to highly addictive food should make little or no sense. Today, for many of us, ultra-processed food is easily accessible and inexpensive. It’s almost impossible to escape, making the risk of poor metabolic health and disease very real.
Whether you have considered surgery, diets, or GLP-1s, making informed decisions is essential. Everyone is different and a one-size-fits-all solution to improving health and wellness doesn’t exist. As always, be sure to reach out to your healthcare professional for guidance.
To help you understand the full potential of these medications and how to use them as a stepping stone toward lasting health and well-being, look for my book, My Prescription for Life, available on AMAZON TODAY?
