Our lives revolve around food. We not only depend on it for energy, nutrients, and development, but it also plays a crucial role in our hobbies, professions, and social connections.
Unfortunately, fad diets, juice cleanses, and extreme fasting can distort our view of food as a source of harm rather than nourishment.
At Bliss Medical Spa, we help teach you healthy eating habits through our comprehensive weight loss program. By combining holistic and medical approaches, including GLP-1 in OKC, you can make choices about your food to optimize health instead of undermining it.
Our GLP-1 weight loss injections, like semaglutide and tirzepatide, can help you sustainably reach your goals. We combine these medications with personalized nutrition and exercise plans, so you can lose weight and maintain your results.
Keep reading to discover how our team uniquely blends holistic and medical strategies for successful weight loss.
Why Crash Diets Don’t Work
Crash diets seem appealing, especially when they promise rapid weight loss in a short period. But they focus on restriction and obsession over “forbidden” foods, like carbohydrates.
In fact, 95% of diets fail because they don’t account for your unique biology. These diets ignore the underlying reasons for weight gain, leaving you without the tools to maintain a healthy weight long-term.
Crash diets also create a cycle of indulgence, regret, and more restriction. They don’t provide you with sustainable choices and guidance to maintain your results. Instead, they can leave you feeling drained, weak, and depleted of essential vitamins and minerals, truly causing a “crash.” How are you supposed to stay consistent with your exercise routine when you feel constantly fatigued?
Why GLP-1s Do Work
GLP-1 in OKC works internally to mimic your body’s GLP-1 hormone, which controls blood sugar levels, appetite, and digestion. Here’s a breakdown of the role this hormone plays in your body.
Regulates Blood Sugar
Semaglutide and Tirzepatide help your body produce more insulin and block glucagon secretion to lower your blood sugar levels. With more balance between these 2 hormones, your body uses the sugar from food for energy, rather than storing it as fat.
Reduces Appetite
Your GLP-1 hormone signals to your brain that you feel “full,” curbing your appetite and your cravings. This can help you maintain a calorie deficit, when you burn more calories than you consume. When taking GLP-1 medication, you can develop healthier eating habits and still feel satisfied.
Slows Digestion
GLP-1 medications slow the movement of food through the stomach and small intestine, making you feel satisfied longer. As a result, you will feel less inclined to snack between meals, leading to lower calorie consumption, further supporting weight loss.
Related Reading: Blissful weight loss injections
Food Is Fuel
Food provides your body with the nutrients and energy it needs to function properly. Like a car needs gasoline, your body uses food to power your daily activities. Metabolism, the process by which the body converts food into energy, involves 2 main processes.
- Catabolism – This process breaks the foods you eat down into their simplest form to provide energy needed for growth and repair.
- Anabolism – Using the energy from those foods, this process builds and repairs our body, then stores excess nutrients as fat.
Crash diets don’t work because they slow your metabolism by signaling to your body to conserve energy and burn fewer calories. They also fail to acknowledge the importance of food and balance in your diet and lifestyle. Your body relies heavily on many food groups to support necessary functions.
Proteins
To grow and repair cells, your body uses protein. Amino acids, the components of protein, build and repair muscles and bones. In your weight loss journey, we recommend prioritizing this nutrient because it can increase levels of satiety and prevent muscle loss. Most people only think of meats, fish, and eggs as sources of protein, but you can also find it in legumes like kidney beans, chickpeas, and lentils.
Fats
Fats get a bad reputation. If you just look at the name, you can see why. But you shouldn’t eliminate them from your diet to maintain weight loss. Instead, choose unsaturated fats, which energize your body, protect your organs, support cell growth, and control blood sugar and cholesterol. You can find these in avocados, hazelnuts, peanuts, salmon, and more.
Carbohydrates
Many diets require you to cut out as much of this food group as possible. But carbs like whole grains, vegetables, fruits, and beans deliver minerals, fibers, and vitamins to your body. Carbs also provide your body with glucose to convert for energy and support your metabolism.
Exercise Recommendations
We want to emphasize the importance of maintaining a healthy diet and regular exercise regimen while you receive GLP-1 in OKC. Begin by engaging in light aerobic exercises before moving to more strenuous activities to avoid burnout. We have a few suggestions, but we can also discuss a tailored exercise plan for you during your office visits.
Light Aerobic Exercises
Aerobic exercises use your body’s large muscle groups to perform rhythmic and repetitive activities that increase your heart rate. We suggest beginning your new fitness journey with 30 minutes of daily exercise 5 days a week, and choosing an activity from walking, jogging, cycling, or swimming.
Moderate Aerobic Exercises
Light aerobic exercises offer a gentle introduction to high-intensity aerobic activities. As you continue to move more, your endurance improves, allowing you to run instead of jog, and swim or cycle with more intensity. You can continue your familiar movements, but at a more challenging level.
Strength Training
Eventually we incorporate strength training exercises like squats, resistance training, deadlifts, and weights into your routine. Strength training helps you burn calories while also building muscle. Typically, any kind of weight loss can also contribute to muscle loss, so it’s important to preserve your strength and continue to build lean muscle while reducing fat.
Consultation
During your medical weight loss consultation, we conduct these 3 tests: A1C, Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR), and Body Mass Index (BMI). We also discuss any past weight loss attempts and goals. Based on your test results and weight loss experiences, we can decide together which weight loss treatment works best for you.
Treatment
If traditional methods don’t work for you, we strongly recommend semaglutide or tirzepatide. These injections fall into the category of medications considered GLP-1 in OKC. The FDA has approved both injections for weight management, and both work similarly to help you reach your goals.
The only difference between the 2 lies in tirzepatide’s ability to mimic both the GLP-1 hormone and the GIP hormone, making it a “dual-action” medication.
GLP-1 medication requires weekly injections in rotating sites, such as your abdomen, thigh, and upper arm. We teach you how to administer your own dose for convenient treatments, and you will come in once a month for follow-up visits, so we can track your progress.
These medications allow some room for dosage adjustments, meaning we can tailor them to your unique body after receiving results from your tests. We may also pair other treatments to maximise your weight loss plan, like BHRT if your weight loss stems from a hormonal imbalance.
We may discuss a membership program with you, since you can receive 12 months of injections and monitor your metabolic rate using our Lumen Metabolic Tracker.
Side Effects
During your monthly visits, we monitor any side effects and adjust your dosage as necessary. Some common side effects include the following:
- Loss of muscle mass
- Nausea
- Vomiting
- Diarrhea
We understand if you have concerns about the potential side effects of GLP-1 in OKC—that’s why working with a trusted healthcare provider makes all the difference. At Bliss, we commit our support to make your weight loss journey as seamless as possible. Usually, you can manage initial side effects by following our nutritional advice and making mindful dietary choices.
Benefits of GLP-1 Medications
Aside from a slimmer figure and better control over your cravings, you can expect to experience the following additional benefits of losing with semaglutide or tirzepatide:
- Improved sleep
- Better joint health
- Lowered heart risks
- Enhanced mood
- Better focus
Results
Your results vary depending on your lifestyle choices, treatment, and your biology. You can expect to feel the effects of these powerful injections before you see them. Within the first week, you may notice the reduced hunger and cravings. Within 6 to 8 weeks following your first injection of GLP-1 in OKC, you can notice differences in your physique.
When you pair these injections with a proper diet and exercise routine, you can expect better results in your figure and your overall health.
How long can I stay on GLP-1 medications?
Originally, medical professionals developed GLP-1 injections to treat type 2 diabetes, a chronic condition where the body struggles to use insulin properly. Therefore, GLP-1 medications are designed for long-term use, allowing for you to manage your condition with maintenance doses for however long you would like. Some patients may stay on GLP-1 medication forever, others may only rely on it for 6 to 12 months. The duration of your treatment relies heavily on you.
Learn Mindful Eating Habits With Bliss
Instead of fearing food, our team wants you to understand it. We believe health means addition or replacement rather than restriction. Our program offers detailed nutritional guidance and ongoing support, empowering you to reach your weight goals and sustain a healthy lifestyle. If you’re ready to start your weight loss journey with GLP-1 in OKC, contact us to schedule an appointment at either our Edmond or our Oklahoma City location.
Alternatively, you can start today by filling out our treatment planner tool to share your concerns. Based on your results, a member of our team will reach out with information regarding your treatment.
