If you need to lose weight, we have the knowledge and tools to help you get it done – no matter how much you need to lose or how quickly you need help.
We understand bariatric surgery isn’t right for everyone. We also understand how critical it is to maintain a healthy body weight.
With that in mind, Longstreet Clinic’s Center for Weight Management is pleased to offer options for non-surgical weight loss, including our Medical Weight Loss program.
Our program uses the New Direction System and includes physician-monitored diet plans that produce results. New Direction is a highly-regarded and well-established program that has assisted patients in accomplishing their weight loss goals for over 20 years.
These safe and effective plans are tailored to the individual’s needs and unique health conditions. The program will help you make lifelong changes, including both nutrition and exercise regimens that produce meaningful results.
Your insurance may cover some of the cost of your medical weight loss program.
We currently offer two programs:
Are you ready to start losing weight? Watch our online video seminar and complete the form to request more information or an in-office consultation.
Why Is it Important to Maintain a Healthy Weight?
In today’s fast-paced culture, it is so easy to get caught up in work, family, social life, kids’ activities, you name it. And when you get what small amount of free time you can spare, we understand how easy it is to wind up binge-watching your favorite shows. We also know that all of us often forget to take time for our own health.
Certainly, that extends to regular doctor’s check-ups and keeping tabs on things like blood pressure. But what goes out the window most often when we get busy?
Our food and lifestyle choices.
Take-out lunches, processed foods and microwave dinners are convenient and cheap. Meanwhile, exercise regimens require time, space and in many cases, money, that we sometimes just don’t have. As a consequence, it’s so easy to get in a rhythm of poor food choices and then missing out on the ability to burn off the calories we consume. And the most insidious thing about weight gain is that happens slowly enough that you don’t necessarily notice it until you realize you’re past the time of needing to do something about it.
By then you’re so stuck in an unhealthy routine that it’s even harder to break than it was to start in the first place – not to mention that it is not easy to begin an exercise regimen without some sort of guidance. For instance, how do you know what exercises will work best for you? How much is enough? How much is too much? No one states a goal of becoming overweight and out of shape, but it happens to even the most motivated and driven of people.
There is no shame in facing down this health issue. And that’s what it is, a health issue. It’s not a function of laziness or boredom. For most of us, our weight, like taking care of any part of your body, is all about monitoring and making conscious decisions.
Obesity is not a pretty word, and neither are its effects on the body. And yet you don’t need to be obese to feel the effects of excessive weight.
Recognized by the National Institute of Health as a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 30 and above, obesity can lead to a litany of other health problems. But you don’t have to be obese in order to feel the strain of extra weight. In fact, carrying a BMI above 25 (normal range is considered between 18.5 to 25) for a length of time can produce the same effects as obesity. The problems incurred on the body by too much weight are wide and varied and include:
- Pulmonary Disease (includes abnormal function, sleep apnea, hypoventilation syndrome)
- Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (includes steatosis, steatohepatitis, cirrhosis)
- Gall Bladder Disease
- Gynecological abnormalities (includes abnormal menses, infertility, polycystic ovarian syndrome)
- Osteoarthritis
- Gout
- Phlebitis
- Cancer (includes breast, uterus, cervix, colon, esophagus, pancreas, kidney, prostate)
- Coronary Heart Disease (includes type 2 diabetes, dyslipidemia, hypertension)
- Cataracts
- Stroke
- Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension
Regaining control of your weight can lead to the reversal of and relief from a number of these health concerns. There is also a 95 percent improvement in the quality of life for patients that overcome obesity, while five-year mortality rates drop by 89 percent.
In other words, maintaining a targeted weight is just as important as any number of other factors to your overall health. And, no, it does not mean you are a failure if you are not at your targeted weight right now.
It simply means that you have options in making the right choices for your overall health.
Gaining Control with Longstreet
Longstreet Clinic’s Center for Weight Management offers you a number of different solutions to treat your weight concerns.
For those facing the need for significant and immediate weight reductions in order to regain better health, we offer bariatric surgery options. But there are plenty of alternatives to surgery, and, if you are determined to overcome, then we can also offer you plenty of non-surgical approaches – many of which can be just as effective and long-lasting as surgery.
However, all of our approaches rest on you and your determination. Weight loss and healthy living success depends on you. No matter how you go about obtaining it, living healthy requires a conscious and measured process that we face each and every day.
What we do is give you the blueprints to success – all based on tried and proven medical methods – and walk with you through each and every step to success. And this is not a case of giving you some paperwork and sending you away. Our approach is that we’re in this together, and your goals are our goals.
Medical Weight Loss at Longstreet
Our dedicated staff and board-certified physicians are not just surgeons (in fact, even our surgeons are not just doctors dedicated to the operating room). We are an entire group of healthcare professionals dedicated to helping you find your best and healthiest self. Part of that pact means establishing lifelong relationships in order to track your success and progress.
Our patients engage in an intense behavioral component which will focus on lifelong dietary, behavioral and activity changes necessary to achieve and maintain weight loss – because yo-yo diets are just as dangerous and insidious as initial weight gain, as initial victories lull you into a false sense of satisfaction.
In order to secure lifelong success, our patients are supervised by a team of healthcare professionals, including a physician, a registered dietitian, a behavioral counselor, and other consultants (such as a nurse or exercise physiologist).
Our registered and licensed dietitians will supervise your progress and help you set and achieve your goals. After completing the initial program, each patient’s care may be tailored according to their desire to continue in their weight control success.
Benefits of our Medical Weight Loss Program
There are many benefits of physician-monitored weight loss, including:
- Better blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol profile with reduced dependence on/freedom from medications
- Reduced risk of end organ damage (liver, lung, heart) from excess weight
- Reduced risk of cancers associated with obesity including:
- Esophagus
- Pancreas
- Colon and rectum
- Breast (after menopause)
- Endometrium (lining of the uterus)
- Kidney
- Thyroid
- Gallbladder
- Increased mobility
- Improved appearance
- Preservation of lean body mass
- Improved sleep apnea
- Increased energy and metabolism
- Improved quality of life
Non-surgical procedures
The Longstreet Clinic Center for Weight Management also offers several procedures to help patients achieve weight loss in a non-surgical manner.
These procedures can be performed with a minimum of fuss and can produce a lifetime of success.
The Longstreet Clinic Difference
We know that it is not easy to make life changes, and that is why we’re here to give you the road map to success. We have every angle covered and will be there for you as you chart your course, no matter your situation.
We also keep an open dialogue with you. There are no questions we have not heard before, and we want you to ask as many as you can think of.
The ultimate goal is your health and happiness, and our only goal is to help you achieve it.
We are pleased to provide a safe and effective medical weight loss option for all overweight individuals. If you are ready to take the steps to change your life today, email us or call (770) 534-0110.
We offer our services at four different locations:
- Gainesville
- Braselton
- Suwanee
Ready to get started? Fill out our history form before your appointment.
