What Makes Our Approach to Weight Loss Treatment in Portland, Oregon Special
Why You Should Choose Full Potential HRT Clinic for Your Weight Loss Treatment
- MEDICAL SERVICE. Most clinics that offer medical weight loss treatment with semaglutide or tirzepatide are not following up with their patients sufficiently. Often they’re not ever seeing their patients in person. This means they’re not performing physical exams, vitals, body weight and composition analysis, or body measurements. This increases the chances that they are losing muscle or bone or other important metabolically active body tissue rather than the fat tissue they’re trying to lose. This increases the likelihood that patients will be unable to maintain their weight loss and that they will regain all or more of their lost weight later when they work to try to reduce their dose of the medication or discontinue the medication altogether. This also increases the chances that patients are losing too much fat too quickly, which increases the likelihood of other serious adverse effects.
- MEDICATION DOSE. Most clinics that offer medical weight loss treatment will make it seem like the medications are included in their monthly dues, but when you read the fine print they cap the dose of the medication at a dose that is not sufficient for many patients.
- WE OFFER MORE. We offer our patients more than just semaglutide or tirzepatide. Prescribing these medications alongside other medications and approaches significantly increases the likelihood of long-term successful weight loss and maintained weight loss.
- WE ARE A REAL & LOCAL CLINIC. Our clinic has been here for 10 years. You can drive here. We can draw your blood here. We have real doctors, medical assistants, and administrative assistants who you can actually see and meet and get to know!
- CUSTOMER SERVICE. This is something patients may not realize is important until they realize they’re not getting it. We provide outstanding customer service in addition to our medical service and for a great value. Our ability to provide outstanding customer service comes from our team working together for 10 years at our southwest Portland, Oregon clinic.
What Else Makes Our Semaglutide & Tirzepatide Medical Weight Loss Treatment in Portland, Oregon Special?
The above tables present a summary of the services included in our active medical weight loss treatment and our maintain medical weight loss treatment programs along with the costs of those programs. They also present an estimate of what our patients can expect to pay for either semaglutide or tirzepatide. They also attempt to explain some of what makes our approach to medical weight loss treatment special.
Our Medical Weight Loss Treatment with Semaglutide or Tirzeaptide is More Successful Because We Determine Other Common Causes of Difficulty Preventing Weight Gain or Difficulty Losing Weight
Our successful approach to medical weight loss treatment begins with the investigation and identification of our patient’s various causes of difficulty preventing weight gain or losing weight. We know that our prospective medical weight loss treatment patient most likely has a significant deficiency of the peptide hormones GLP-1 or GIP and that treatment with either semaglutide or tirzepatide to replace those deficient peptide hormones will most likely work. However, we also work to identify other common causes of difficulty preventing weight gain or losing weight with our comprehensive initial semaglutide or tirzepatide medical weight loss evaluation and consultation including:
- Thyroid hormone deficiency
- Cortisol deficiency
- Testosterone deficiency
- Growth hormone deficiency
- Vitamin D deficiency
- Excessive cortisol
- Excessive prolactin
- Excessive insulin due to insulin resistance caused by metabolic syndrome or diabetes mellitus type 2
- Liver congestion or inflammation
- Nutrient deficiencies, including iron deficiency
- Excessive generalized inflammation
- Food addiction or other eating disorder
In addition to baseline comprehensive blood testing we also perform general physical exams and baseline body weight and composition analysis, and measurements to show how much fat tissue is present in relation to other important metabolically active tissue such as muscle and bone and other organ tissue. We discuss history of dieting, exercising, stressors and stress management, sleep hygiene or disorders, and more. Equipped with all of this diagnostic information we are able to determine other causes of difficulty preventing weight gain or losing weight for our patient, besides just a deficiency of semaglutide or tirzepatide, so that we can create a comprehensive customized medical weight loss treatment plan to help them safely and successfully lose weight and maintain weight loss.
We Prescribe Semaglutide and Tirzepatide with the Goal of Promoting Long-Term Weight Loss and Maintenance of Weight Loss While Preventing Adverse Effects and Long-Term Risks
Our Goal is Safe and Consistent and Maintained Weight Loss:
We initiate treatment with either semaglutide or tirzepatide at a safe starting dose and very carefully increase the dose to help our patients to lose weight at a rate of about 1-2 pounds per week until they reach their desired or healthy weight. Oftentimes, patients will lose weight more rapidly than this during the first month or so of treatment before slowing down to a rate of 1-2 pounds per week. Sometimes patients who have significantly more weight to lose will be able to lose more than 1-2 pounds per week for many weeks or even for many months before slowing down to a rate of 1-2 pounds per week.
It is important to avoid increasing the dose of these medications too rapidly to achieve more rapid weight loss, because we have seen this cause patients to require higher doses to lose the same amount of weight and to maintain weight loss. It also increases the risk that all of the weight lost will be regained, or that even more weight may be regained if the medication is decreased or discontinued.
It is also important to avoid more rapid weight loss, because this has been proven to cause potentially severe short-term adverse effects and long-term risks.
Our Goal is to Prevent Minor Potential Short-Term Adverse Effects:
- Abnormal loss of appetite
- Nausea
- Indigestion (bloating, flatulence, etc)
- Fatigue
- Diarrhea
- Vomiting
- Hypersensitivity or allergic reactions
Our Goal is to Prevent Serious Potential Short-Term Adverse Effects:
- Pancreatitis (inflammation of pancreas caused by obstruction of bile)
Our Goal is to Prevent Serious Potential Medium-Term Adverse Effects:
- Cholestasis (decreased bile flow through biliary system)
- Cholelithiasis (gallstones caused by poor bile flow)
- Cholecystitis (inflammation of the gallbladder due to obstruction of bile)
Our Goal is to Prevent Serious Potential Long-Term Risks:
- Slowed / damaged metabolism (may regain all and more weight than was lost)
- Muscle or bone or other organ tissue loss (may regain all and more weight than was lost and have poorer health than prior to weight loss)
- Development of an eating disorder
- Fatigue, depression, or worsening of fatigue or depression
Our Medical Weight Loss Treatment with Semaglutide or Tirzeaptide is More Successful Because We Treat Other Common Causes of Difficulty Preventing Weight Gain or Difficulty Losing Weight
Another reason why our approach to medical weight loss treatment with semaglutide and tirzepatide is so successful is because we treat more than just a deficiency of GLP-1 or GIP peptide hormones. We often prescribe other medications and treatments in addition to diet and lifestyle recommendations to address OTHER common causes of difficulty preventing weight gain or losing weight, including:
- Testosterone and comprehensive hormone replacement therapy, including growth hormone therapy when indicated to treat hormone deficiencies or excesses
- Vitamin, micronutrient, and herbal therapies to treat vitamin amd micronutrient deficiencies & other generalized metabolic syndromes, including generalized inflammation and diabetes
- Regenerative injection therapies to heal damaged and painful joints and muscles that can make exercise difficult or impossible
We don’t force these additional therapies on our medical weight loss patients,
but we do consider our ability to prescribe these other therapies to be a part of our approach to successful medical weight loss treatment because they make semaglutide and tirzepatide more effective. Patients who are interested in these additional medical weight loss therapies can more successfully lose weight loss and maintain lost weight, and as a side-benefit they also improve their quality of life and general health. Some patients do have to incorporate some of these other adjunctive medical weight loss treatments in order to reach their desired or healthy weight, especially patients who suffer from hypothyroidism, menopause or testosterone deficiency.
We Follow up Consistently With Our Weight Loss Treatment Patients
Most of our “competitors” fail to sufficiently follow up with their patients, which decreases the likelihood of long-term success and increases the risk that patients will have acute pancreatitis or cholecystitis or other serious adverse effects and long-term risks. We work hard to provide the necessary and responsible ongoing follow-up and management needed to promote long-term safety and successful weight loss.
Part of the reason our patients are able to safely and successfully lose weight during their weight loss phase is that we follow up with our weight loss patients every two months with an office visit that includes body measurements and body composition analysis and every four months with additional blood tests to recheck their fasting lipids, hemoglobin A1C, insulin, comprehensive metabolic panel with liver and kidney function, and CRP (a measure of general inflammation) with a phone call lab review and treatment plan discussion the following week.
Note – we usually prescribe dose adjustments every month until the therapeutic dose has been reached.
We strive to provide convenient and outstanding customer service to our weight loss patients. Our weight loss patients are able to message or schedule phone calls with their doctors when needed.
We Follow up Consistently With Our Maintain Weight Loss Treatment Patients
Once our patient has reached their desired or healthy weight we offer to continue to follow up with them regularly through a less costly Maintain Weight Loss Treatment Membership for
patients who need to gradually taper their dose over time before they discontinue the medication, in order to prevent regaining their lost weight.
Part of the reason our patients are able to maintain their weight loss during their weight maintenance phase is that we continue to follow up with them regularly every four months with an office visit that includes body measurements and body composition analysis as well as blood tests for fasting insulin, CMP, and hemoglobin A1C, with a phone call lab review and treatment plan discussion the following week.
We strive to provide convenient and outstanding customer service to our weight loss patients. Our weight loss patients are able to message or schedule phone calls with their doctors when needed.
Our Goal is for You to be Able to Successfully Wean Yourself Off of Medically Supervised Weight Loss
Part of what makes our approach to weight loss treatment special is our goal throughout the initiation and treatment process of working to improve the chances that you will be able to successfully wean yourself off of medically supervised weight loss treatment. This is accomplished by the manner in which we prescribe either semaglutide or tirzepatide in conjunction with a multi-faceted approach to weight loss treatment that includes other medical and naturopathic treatments as well as diet and lifestyle methods in order to address your root causes of weight gain and difficulty losing weight. If you begin to regain your lost weight, you can always restart medically supervised weight loss treatment with our clinic again. As long as it’s been less than 12 months since you discontinued Maintain Weight Loss Treatment it is most likely that there is no need to repeat the initial evaluation and consultation process.
Disclaimers
We do not dispense or administer medications without a valid prescription pursuant to a legitimate doctor-patient relationship, which in our opinion requires an in-person office evaluation and consultation.
Semaglutide and tirzepatide medications are indicated for weight loss for patients for whom diet and exercise by itself hasn’t worked to affect successful weight loss. For the best results, including successful and healthy weight loss, patients should devote themselves to a healthy regimen of diet and exercise while using the medications.
There is no such thing as a guarantee when it comes to weight loss or any other medical treatment. Results vary based on many factors. Although the clinical trials showed semaglutide also known as Wegovy® or Ozempic®, and tirzepatide also known as Mounjaro™ or Zepbound™ to be effective for most patients there is no guarantee that these medications will work for each and every patient in terms of speed of results or magnitude of overall results.
The FDA-approved brand name drugs, Wegovy® and Ozempic® are exclusively available from the Novo Nordisk™ company. The FDA-approved brand name drugs, Mounjaro™ and Zepbound™ are exclusively available from Eli Lilly and Company™. Full Potential HRT Clinic does not claim any affiliation with, or endorsement from, the above mentioned products or entities. CURRENTLY, we do not prescribe any of the abovementioned products due to a NATIONAL SHORTAGE of these trademarked products.
Schedule Initial Weight Loss Evaluation & Consultation – Call Now or Complete Online Form for a Call Back Later
The good news is that the clinical trials testing Ozempic™ & Wegovy™ and Monjouro™ & Zepbound™ have proven that most people who are overweight or obese and who cannot lose weight despite diet and lifestyle changes are actually suffering from a chronic severe hormone deficiency of the peptide hormones GLP-1 and GIP.
It’s really important that you see a doctor with expertise and successful experience evaluating overweight and obese patients and managing their medical weight loss treatment. Our team of doctors has more than 10 years of experience successfully treating patients near Portland, Oregon helping them to successfully lose weight and to live and perform to their full potential quality of life, health, and longevity.
Schedule Your Initial Medical Weight Loss Evaluation & Consultation. Call 503-406-8066 now or complete our online form for a call back later.