Weight Loss & Healthy Living: What To Know

Weight loss has become a frequent point of conversation and interest in today’s society and many are looking for quick fixes and ways to achieve their “dream body.”.

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Now, with the latest advancements in medical technology, quick fixes are actually available. In 2017, 252,000 weight-loss surgeries were performed in the United States alone. However, such solutions are often not long-term as it is common to regain 25% or more of the lost weight after surgery.

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In this world of radical weight-loss surgeries and fad diets, Next Health aims to provide effective, long-term solutions to healthy weight loss that deliver real results. We hope to empower you with practical tools and medically-guided solutions for weight loss tailored to your health.

Practice Old Reliable: Diet And Exercise

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You’ll be hard-pressed to find a weight loss solution that can work with a poor diet and exercise regimen, thus it is necessary to outline the ways in which both can be optimized for long-term weight loss success.

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Eating For Weight Loss

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The important thing to remember when beginning a weight loss journey is that food is your fuel. Depriving yourself of food compromises your bodily functions making it harder to stay active, think clearly, and experience overall wellness. Moreover, those who overly restrict are more prone to binging, leading to a yo-yo dieting effect that damages your metabolism.

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However, fasting-mimicking diets are an effective way to minimize or eliminate cravings, giving the reset you need to optimize your diet for health.

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Dr. Valter Longo, Italian-American biogerontologist and cell biologist,  helped pioneer fasting-mimicking diets at the University of Southern California’s Longevity Institute. His research demonstrated that these diets “trick” the body into fasting mode allows you to reap the benefits of fasting while still eating throughout the day.  These diets are typically five days and improve blood sugar levels (minimizing cravings), cardiovascular health, weight loss (notably belly fast and water retention), detoxification, metabolic health, and more.

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After a fasting-mimicking diet, these foods can help boost metabolism and support weight loss:

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Leafy Greens

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Leafy greens such as spinach, kale, collard greens, and swiss chard are packed with fiber and nutrients that leave you feeling full. In fact, some studies show leafy greens that contain thylakoid, a plant compound, lead to better appetite management resulting in weight loss.

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Fatty Fish

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Fatty fish such as wild-caught salmon, trout, sardines, herring, and tuna are packed with protein and healthier fats, nutrients that are proven to keep you satiated for longer. Additionally, such fish are excellent fuel for the body and mind. Protein can help power a productive workout and healthy fats, or omega-3s, are critical for brain health and function but the body does not produce them naturally (making it important to obtain them through diet). Omega-3s also combat inflammation, an impediment to weight loss.

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Beans and Legumes

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Beans and legumes such as lentils, black beans, and kidney beans are another high protein and fiber combination that helps promote satiety while being a lower calorie intake. However, for some, beans and legumes can contribute to bloating and gas.

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Avocados

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While most fruits are high in carbohydrates, avocados are high in healthy fats, fiber, and antioxidants. The combination of fiber and water in avocados promotes satiety while the antioxidants combat inflammation and promote cellular health. Avocados also help your body absorb water-soluble nutrients such as vitamins A, D, E, and K, leading to elevated energy levels and overall wellness.

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Chili Peppers

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Chili peppers can be beneficial for weight loss as they contain capsaicin. This substance is the component that contributes spice to the peppers and it also can improve how fast your body metabolizes fat and increases the feeling of fullness.

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Although all of these foods are beneficial for weight loss, they may not be right for everyone. Oftentimes, “healthy” foods can lead to suboptimal health due to food sensitivities.

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What are food sensitivities?

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The terms food allergies, sensitivities, and intolerances are often confused and used interchangeably, although they are unique physiological conditions. A true food allergy causes an immune system reaction that affects numerous organs in the body. It can cause a range of symptoms, and, in some cases, an allergic reaction can be severe or life-threatening. In contrast, symptoms of food intolerances or sensitivities are generally less serious, but often more difficult to detect or diagnose. Some symptoms may include bloating, headaches, skin problems, fatigue and more.

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For those looking to take the guesswork out of their diet, consider the Next Health Food Sensitivity Test. This is a simple at-home finger-prick test or a blood draw at one of our locations that will help our medical experts determine what foods you may be sensitive to. This test is incredibly thorough as it measures your immune response to over 96 different foods.

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It is important to note that just because you are currently sensitive to a food, does not mean you have to eliminate it from your diet forever. After working with our medical experts to improve your gut health, it is likely you will alleviate some sensitivities.

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Equally important to identifying the foods you should eliminate from your diet, is identifying the foods that you are not sensitive to. This provides more dietary freedom to enjoy foods that you might be unnecessarily avoiding.

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Food Sensitivity Testing can guide your diet and help you effectively fuel your body.

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Exercising For Weight Loss

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Before weight loss, it is important to remember that exercising is one of the best things you can do for your body. It is proven to enhance mental health, cardiovascular health, hormonal health, and support longevity. In fact, research suggests that exercising 150 minutes or more every week increases life expectancy by approximately seven years.

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Jumping rope is a great full-body workout that encourages weight loss and requires a minimal amount of time. Experts recommend aiming for ten sets of 100 jumps, with a short break in between sets, a couple of times a week. Beginners can start with fewer sets and work their way up.

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High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is another effective way to promote weight loss because you can burn a lot of calories in a short amount of time. This is because it produces excess post-oxygen consumption or EPOC, which means you keep burning calories even after the workout is over.

Building lean muscle is one of the best ways to support long-term weight loss because muscle helps increase your metabolism, allowing you to burn more calories over time. In addition to muscle-building activities, you can supplement your diet and exercise routine with our Weight Loss IV. This IV combines l-arginine, MIC, B vitamins, and amino acids to support your liver’s metabolization of fat while building lean muscle mass. All these nutrients are delivered straight to your bloodstream allowing for maximum bioavailability.

Test Your Thyroid Levels

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The thyroid gland is an important regulator of numerous bodily functions including weight regulation. This is primarily because the thyroid has significant influence over metabolic and hormone activity. Unfortunately, thyroid conditions such as hypothyroidism (reduced thyroid activity) are frequently overlooked or undertreated because standard lab tests only assess one specific component of thyroid function. For an accurate diagnosis, thyroid testing must at minimum include TSH, Free T4, Free T3, and Reverse T3. If any of these hormones are out of balance, it is likely that you are suffering from some degree of thyroid dysfunction.

Thyroid dysfunction can contribute to weight gain by slowing metabolism and hormone activity. When the thyroid is not producing enough hormones (hypothyroidism), the body's basal metabolic rate decreases. This means the body burns fewer calories and stores more energy as fat. By reducing calorie burning and metabolism, hypothyroidism can lead to weight gain over time as the body accumulates excess fat. Accurate diagnosis and treatment of thyroid conditions is critical to regulating hormones, metabolism, and maintaining a healthy weight.

However, many standard practitioners only test Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH). TSH is a pituitary hormone, which stimulates thyroid hormone production by the thyroid gland. However, a wealth of studies have confirmed that TSH is a poor measure for estimating the metabolic severity of primary thyroid failure and/or a proper thyroid dose. The poor diagnostic sensitivity and high false-positive rates associated with such measurements render them virtually useless in clinical practice. This is why it is estimated that approximately 750 million people globally suffer from thyroid dysfunction, with up to 60% being undiagnosed.

To accurately identify hypothyroidism, testing of T3, T4, and other markers are needed.

To test your thyroid levels with the Next Health Thyroid test, click here

Test Your Leptin Levels

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Leptin is a hormone crucial for regulating weight and metabolism. When functioning properly, leptin informs the body whether to store or burn fat.

If the body becomes less responsive to leptin, known as leptin resistance, the signals triggering fat burning and use become suppressed.

Leptin resistance can also induce hypothyroidism at a cellular level, undetectable through standard thyroid testing.

Studies show most obese individuals suffer at least some leptin resistance. Fortunately, leptin resistance may be diagnosed through a simple blood test.

Utilize Cold Therapy

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In addition to the popularized benefits of cold therapy such as reducing inflammation, improving circulation, and enhancing brain function, cold therapy is also an incredible weight loss tool.

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Remember, the definition of a calorie is a measurement of heat (a unit of energy equivalent to the heat energy needed to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water by 1 °C). Therefore, when heat is leaving your body, calories are leaving your body.

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3 minutes of cold exposure daily has been linked to weight loss and sustained metabolic health. Consider Next Health’s Cryotherapy, true whole-body, non-nitrogen cold therapy that reaches temperatures as low as -150 degrees Fahrenheit.

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Promote Metabolic Function with Infrared Light Therapy

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Infrared Therapy is becoming increasingly popular due to its variety of health benefits. The LED lights activate ATP (energy within body tissues), stimulate white blood cells to repair damaged tissues, increase collagen production, trigger the release of endorphins, and even promote metabolic function.

Because Infrared Therapy targets mitochondria, the energy source of cells, it can increase your metabolic rate by promoting the efficacy of utilizing glucose and fat in the body.  

When you visit Next Health, you can choose to set your LED to a specific frequency to target metabolic health to support your weight loss journey.

Plus, The Next Health infrared lights are designed with over 13,000 high-intensity red, blue, and infrared LEDs which are positioned close to the skin for maximum effect.

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Consider Peptide Therapy

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Semaglutide is a peptide that has been well-researched for its potential ability to accelerate weight loss and improve metabolic health.

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Research shows it can help balance out hormones like insulin, which may curb appetite and help people get out of the habit of “mindless eating.” Plus, studies show this peptide may help control blood sugar spikes lowering blood sugar and helping your body develop a healthy metabolic set point.

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A study published in The New England Journal of Medicine showed that after just four weeks of taking semaglutide, patients experienced more than a 2% reduction in body weight. This weight loss continued in the 68-week study, with patients ultimately losing an average of 14.9% of their body weight.

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*Our policy requires medical consultation and recommendation from a licensed provider for peptide therapy.

Interested in utilizing peptides for weight loss or have questions about your weight loss journey? Request a complimentary consult

Call or text us at: (310) 295-207