Struggling with Midlife Weight Gain? Medical Weight Loss Can Help

If you struggle to maintain a healthy body weight, you’re not alone: Statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that nearly three in four adults (73.6%) in the United States are either overweight or obese.

While weight management difficulties affect people of all ages, the problem often emerges or significantly worsens in middle age. Extra midlife pounds tend to accumulate easily and stick around with tenacity: the average American gains 30 pounds by the age of 50.

Our team at Nova Physician Wellness Center understands the challenges of losing weight on your own, especially as you get older. Here’s how our proactive, comprehensive medical weight loss approach can help you reach your health and wellness goals.

Why is weight control harder with age?

Weight control is an ongoing process that’s shaped by a myriad of influences, ranging from genetics and gender to lifestyle and behavioral patterns. It’s also an ever-evolving process, meaning successful weight maintenance often means adjusting your approach as you age.

Why? The factors that make weight gain more likely with age are the same factors that make extra midlife pounds so much harder to lose. Starting in your 30s and continuing through your 40s, 50s, and often beyond, weight loss can become more difficult because of:

• Age-related muscle mass decline
• Shifting reproductive hormone levels
• Increased abdominal fat storage
• Decreasing metabolic efficiency
• Midlife stress, inactivity, or sleep issues

Taken altogether, these factors can have a kind of “snowball” effect that promotes easy weight gain as it simultaneously inhibits efficient weight loss. Fortunately, we can help you overcome these common weight loss obstacles.

Medical weight loss is tailored to you

By combining professional guidance, personalized nutrition and workout planning, behavioral counseling, and targeted metabolic support, a customized medical weight loss plan can be an ideal solution if you:

• Have struggled to lose weight (or keep it off) on your own
• Use food to cope with stress, anxiety, or boredom (i.e., emotional eating)
• Have a weight-related health condition (i.e., Type 2 diabetes, hypertension)
• Have a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher (clinical obesity)
• Have a BMI of 27-29, along with at least one weight-related health concern
• Need to lose some initial weight to qualify for bariatric surgery

Medical weight loss is also an ideal approach for people affected by underlying conditions — like age-related hormonal imbalances — that require integrated medical management. 

From insurmountable to achievable 

Medical weight loss goes beyond basic exercise and diet advice to help you lose excess pounds in a safe, efficient, and sustainable way, and keep them off long-term. 

To create a fully tailored medical weight loss plan that meets you where you’re at and helps you get where you’d like to be, we evaluate and consider your:

• Full medical history
• Previous dieting history
• Body composition
• Metabolic test results
• Genetic predispositions
• Behavioral patterns
• Familial/cultural factors
• Current medications

With your individual influencing factors in mind, we create a personalized weight loss action plan centered on two core concepts — balanced nutrition and regular exercise — backed by as-needed medical support.

Personalized nutrition 

Your custom eating plan isn’t just about balancing calories: It’s about supplying your body with the essential nutrients it needs to burn fat efficiently, build muscle, boost your metabolism, curb unhealthy cravings, improve your health, and effectively thrive. 

Well-rounded fitness 

Exercise, the other main driver of weight loss, isn’t simply about burning calories. It’s the key to helping you gain fitness as you shed extra pounds.

Your personalized physical activity plan (including cardio, strength training, and stretching workouts) starts at your current, fully assessed fitness level, and helps you advance safely to the next level within your individualized parameters.

Weight loss support

If you need extra weight loss support, we may prescribe a short-term weight-loss aid, or if you qualify, a longer-term GLP-1 medication, to help you reach your goals more efficiently. 

These medications can improve metabolic function, reduce unhealthy food cravings, suppress your appetite, and help you feel satiated (full) with less food. In short, medical support can help jump-start your metabolism, so your body burns calories and fat more efficiently from the start.

Ready to reach your weight loss goals?

“Middle-aged spread” may be the norm for most adults, but midlife weight gain isn’t a foregone conclusion: Our medical weight loss approach can help you get healthier and fitter today, giving you the tools you need for successful long-term weight maintenance.

With seven Virginia locations in Fairfax, Lansdowne, Vienna, Arlington, Charlottesville, Sterling, and Woodbridge, and another office in Rockville, Maryland, our Nova Physician Wellness Center team is here to help. Call or use online booking to schedule your visit today.