Five Common Weight Loss Challenges

Every weight loss journey is unique. However, there are certain challenges that most people face in their endeavor. Being able to identify these obstacles can help you realize that you’re not alone, and that there are healthy, constructive ways to overcome them. Here are five of the most common:

1. Cravings for unhealthy foods

Cravings for foods high in fat and sugar can come up fast during the first stage of a weight loss program. Triggers may include stress, boredom, or social situations. Moreover, if you’re accustomed to snacking on potato chips at a particular time each day, or your office brings in doughnuts on Monday, you’ve likely to have psychologically conditioned yourself to expect them on schedule.

How to deal with cravings:

• Have a structured meal plan. This can help you make healthier choices and avoid impulsive eating. If you know what you’ll be eating throughout the day, you won’t grab junk food when hunger hits. Scripts advises to have meals at the same time each day, and plan for nutritious snacks to prevent hunger and low-blood sugar between meals, which can trigger cravings.
• Stay hydrated. Often, our bodies mistake thirst for hunger. Dehydration can mimic hunger signals, leading you to consume extra calories when all you need is water. Keeping a water bottle nearby can serve as a reminder to hydrate throughout the day. Also, water can create a sense of fullness, reducing the likelihood of overeating. When you’re ready to dig into a bag of chips, drink a tall glass of water and wait 20 minutes, instead. You may find that your craving is either gone or dramatically reduced!
• Allow for small indulgences. Restricting foods completely can backfire and lead to overeating or binge eating. Allow yourself small, mindful portions of your favorite treats occasionally to prevent feeling deprived. Our blog post – “10 Common Weight Loss Myths” – covers this topic in detail.

2. Slip-ups and Backsliding

So what if you just couldn’t restrain yourself from indulging in Doughnut Monday at the office? Don’t feel like you’re a weak-willed person who can’t stay on a diet! Learn from the experience. Think about what led up to it. Could you not say “no” to the doughnut because you’d skipped breakfast, or were anxious about meeting a deadline, closing a sale, etc.? Or did you want to chat with your coworkers as they munched away, and not feel left out? Putting the incident in context may help you retrace your psychological steps so you can avoid giving into temptation, and continue the healthier habits you’re establishing.

3. Motivation and time management

Maintaining motivation for weight loss can be difficult, especially when results are not immediately visible. For those incorporating exercise into their weight loss program, some may find traditional workouts unengaging, making it harder to stick to an exercise routine. Also, busy schedules can make it hard to find time for exercise, meal preparation and mindful eating. 

How to boost self-motivation and improve time management:

• Set SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) goals. A common pitfall is setting a high weight-loss goal that’s focused on the target weight, but doesn’t address the step-by-step actions and incremental goals necessary to achieve it. Only setting yourself an end goal can be demotivating and overwhelming.
• Remind yourself why you want to lose weight, but focus on the positive. Of course, you know all the long-term health risks of obesity. However, using fear alone as motivation is counterproductive – and can even increase your anxiety. Keep the benefits of reaching and maintaining a healthy weight for your gender, height, age, etc., front-of-mind each day! Knowing that you’ll feel better, stronger, more capable of handling physical demands and self-confident can give you the inspiration to move forward!
• Get moving with regular exercise. Unfortunately, too many people equate spending hours at the gym with losing weight. In fact, going from zero amount of exercise to the other extreme will actually work against you! Our blog post – “Why Excessive Exercise Can Make it Difficult to Follow a Diet” – explains this in detail. Incorporating a moderate amount of physical activity in your day can help a great deal! Aim for 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week; spread this out throughout the week for optimal results. Although you can’t add more hours to the day, be sure to schedule enough time to work out, walk, etc. Also, the more weight you lose, the more you’ll feel like doing things that felt exhausting before – which creates a positive cycle that encourages more movement!

4. Diet plateaus

Weight loss plateaus occur because your body adapts to your new calorie intake and activity levels, requiring fewer calories to function. As you lose weight, your body adjusts its metabolism and energy expenditure, potentially leading to a point where calorie intake and expenditure are balanced, causing weight loss to stall. This results in a frustrating, discouraging situation in which you feel you’re not making progress, and will never reach your target weight.

However, weight loss plateaus are a normal part of the journey. Patience, persistence, and strategic adjustments to your diet and exercise routine are crucial for breaking through them and continuing toward your goals.

5. Reliance on willpower

This has been the doom of many self-guided diets. Willpower alone is often not enough for successful and sustainable dieting because the body has powerful biological mechanisms that can sabotage weight loss efforts. When restricting food intake, the body responds by increasing hunger hormones, slowing metabolism, and triggering intense cravings, making it difficult to maintain a calorie deficit. Additionally, dieting can lead to stress, anxiety, and nutrient deficiencies, further undermining willpower and potentially leading to a cycle of weight regain.

How Medical Weight Loss Can Help You Overcome These Common Challenges

These five challenges to meeting your weight loss goals are among the top factors that may have held you back from achieving successful long-term results, but they’re not the only ones – as you perhaps know all too well. This is where a physician-directed medical weight loss program can help! Breakthrough GLP-1 medications and the long-established appetite suppressant phentermine can safely achieve significant results when prescribed by a doctor specializing in medical weight loss as part of a comprehensive program that includes diet and moderate exercise.

Solutions Weight Loss can put you on the road to success for significant, long-term weight loss – beginning with your in-person consultation with Dr. Newsome. During your first appointment, Dr. Newsome will measure your BMI, take your vital signs (body temperature, pulse rate, respiratory rate and blood pressure) and talk with you about your medical history to learn about any health conditions you’ve had or currently have.

During this appointment, Dr. Newsome will also have an in-depth conversation with you about your weight loss goals. If you feel frustrated by the lack of results and setbacks from previous weight loss programs you’ve tried, Dr. Newsome will be able to relate to your experiences. He has been where you are, and knows that losing excess weight is a difficult and emotional process.

Based upon your consultation, Dr. Newsome will evaluate and prescribe for you the best medication treatment plan to achieve your goals. We offer high-quality, safe and affordable, compounded GLP-1 medications like semaglutide and tirzepatide – which you probably know under brand names like Wegovy®, Ozempic®, Zepbound®, or Mounjaro®. Research shows that when combined with one-on-one physician coaching, low-calorie diet and lifestyle changes, they are the safest and most effective approach to achieve sustainable weight loss. Our blog post – “The Benefits of Medical Appetite Control” – describes in detail how GLP-1 medications work to control appetite, as does our website’s Medications page.

Although GLP-1 medications are now getting the most attention, phentermine is an FDA-approved, once-daily diet pill that aids in weight loss by suppressing appetite. Available only with a doctor’s prescription, this stimulant and appetite suppressant is probably the most well-known weight loss medication in the world due to its relative safety and efficacy – recognized as a safe and effective way to decrease hunger while dieting. Based upon your consultation with Dr. Newsome, this may be the medication he determines will be best for your individual situation.

Because we prescribe, compound and dispense these medications, shortages of the brand-name drugs that often occur will never affect your access. In fact, you can leave our office with your medication the same day – offering you both confidence in the quality of your GLP-1 medication AND convenience! We also offer a prescription program for name brand GLP-1 medications. Moreover, we understand that people have busy schedules that may not allow them to visit our office on a weekly basis. That’s why we can dispense up to 12 weeks of your weight loss medication at a time.

The doctor-patient relationship is essential to successful, sustainable weight loss. Dr. Newsome and our entire Solutions Weight Loss team are with you on every step of your medical weight loss journey! You’ll never feel that you’re on your own. You will know us, and we will know you – which allows us to give you the individual help and advice you need!

Our Record in Getting Results for Our Patients

Solutions Weight Loss internal results prove our medically supervised program is effective at driving long-term improvements to metabolic health and weight loss, with an average of 21% weight loss at 12 months; 19.1% at 18 months, and 18.9% at 24 months. Our members have also decreased their waist circumference by 7 inches, on average. These results are superior to the weight loss seen in clinical trials for GLP-1 medications. Regardless of which medication they take, our members have demonstrated significant and sustained results!

See what makes Solutions Weight Loss the #1 weight loss clinic in Florida! Schedule your consultation with Dr. Newsome here, or call 407-413-5503, and experience the benefits of today’s metabolic approach to sustainable weight loss! End the frustrating cycle of serial dieting and start living your best life!