By Sandra Palavecino, MD
TidalHealth Medical Weight Loss & Bariatric Nutrition
Step one in a weight loss journey is deciding you’re ready to begin that journey. But then, how do you set your weight loss goal?
A good place to start is with the first 3 to 5 percent of your weight. While this might not sound like a lot, losing even that first 5 percent will help improve someone’s sugar metabolism, the process that converts sugar to energy.
After completing that first goal, if you need to lose additional weight, you can move on to a goal of 15 to 20 percent of the starting weight. Obesity is a chronic disease, and this step can help improve complications that come with obesity, like metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), formerly known as fatty liver disease; and severe arthritis.
Rather than using a body mass index, or BMI, number as the reason to lose weight, what’s more important is the complications someone’s excess weight is causing them— for example, arthritis and MASLD, as mentioned, or other health concerns, like diabetes and high cholesterol.
Losing the first 10 or 20 pounds can also allow people to be more comfortable as they go for walks. Exercise continues to stay important as someone loses weight, because when someone loses a lot of weight, they also lose lean mass. You still want to maintain or add muscle once you lose a lot of weight. This could lead to an increase in the number on the scale, but a lower percentage of fat mass.
Measurable strategies
It’s important that once you set a goal that you back it up with measurable strategies to make it happen. For example, if you enjoy soda and want to reduce the amount of soda you drink, don’t just say you’re going to drink less soda — say you’ll have no more than one soda per day, or no more than one per week. Strategies will vary based on each person and their habits, but some measurable ideas include:
• Increase steps by 500 over the average per day
• Don’t eat in the car
• Don’t eat after dinner
You can log meals and strategies and see what works.
If you need support from a professional on your weight loss journey, set up an appointment with me or someone on my team. I start by learning about each patient and their lifestyle, learning about how the person eats, whether they know how to cook, whether they’re on the road or working at night, what medications they take, and more.
We take the first few months to look at changes, and if diet and exercise changes do not help, we can discuss surgical and medical weight loss strategies.
Weight loss can be a challenging journey, and here, we celebrate every pound lost.
Need help losing weight? Schedule an appointment with TidalHealth. New patient appointments are available in Berlin and Seaford. Visit tidalhealth.org/findyourhealthyweight.
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