Weight Loss Facts:

Low Fat Foods DON'T WORK.  
You cannot lose weight using Low Fat Diets.  Low fat foods have been popular for more than 15 years, but yet our society is getting more overweight as each year passes.  This fact alone should tell you that eating a purely low fat menu is not the answer to losing weight.
Low Calorie Diets DON'T WORK.

You won't lose weight using a Low Calorie Dieting Plan either.   In fact, eating low calories is the worst thing that you can do to your body, since that will only slow down your body's fat burning engine and ruin all chances of losing weight (low calorie diets may allow a few pounds of weight loss for the first few days, but then after that all weight loss comes to a halt --- known as a dieting plateau).   You can never get slim by starving yourself.

Weight loss

If you are serious about your weight loss program, exercise is the key.  The question is usually how can you become motivated enough to make such a big change in your life? Leave the motivating up to us!  Our Personal Trainers are charismatic, easy-going, and tough when we need to be!  You will have fun working with us and setting up a game plan that best fits your desired outcomes.  We will talk about the benefits of motivation, how much exercise it takes, the types of exercises, and exercising safely under health conditions.  We personally guarantee Ultimate Results!

The Weight Management programs at the Pro Medical are designed to help you develop the knowledge, skills and behaviors to manage your weight for life.
Who benefits from our programs?

Our weight management programs are for people:

• Who would like to develop skills for a healthy lifestyle
• With moderate to significant weight loss needs
• With a desire to prevent high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol and other weight-related health problems

In addition, our programs can help you if you:

• Are beginning a physical activity program for the first time
• Want a structured and monitored program to develop a healthy lifestyle
• Have lost weight and want to maintain that weight loss

Pre-evaluation

The Weight Management programs begin with a health and risk assessment that includes an exercise tolerance test with VO2 max measurement, hydrostatic percent body fat measurement, resting metabolic rate measurement, a lipid profile, and a review of your medical and family history, your lifestyle behaviors and your current physical condition.
If needed, your medical evaluation and follow up can be coordinated with your personal physician.

Available programs and packages

The Weight Management program includes:

• Individual goal-setting sessions with a registered dietitian and an exercise physiologist
• Educational classes focused on healthy eating strategies, exercise planning, stress management skills, lifestyle change strategies and dealing with eating and emotions
• Weekly progress checks with an exercise physiologist, lpn,  and dietitian who will evaluate and guide your progress
• Provides Education
• Training sessions
• On going monitoring

 
How to enroll:

You can call (304) 983-7766

We offer a medically integrated approach to fitness. Membership means connecting on a unique level with our professional staff. The center is home to medical services such as nutrition counseling, a comprehensive weight management program, physical therapy and Pro Medial Rehab. A team approach helps you meet, achieve and maintain a healthy lifestyle for years to come.

Energy Balance

Metabolic Rate Measurements

“If you don't know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.”

Yogi Berra quote

Metabolic rate, or metabolism, is the rate at which the body expends energy. This is also referred to as the “caloric burn rate”. Knowing metabolic rate is vital for weight loss as well as for determining the proper feeding amounts needed to treat various disease states.

Energy expenditure can be divided into three groups of calories.

• Resting Calories – Calories that are burned while the body is at rest. These calories are needed just to maintain life. The majority of all calories burned (about 70-80%) are burned at the resting level. We can measure your resting metabolic rate
• Activity Calories – Calories that are burned because of normal daily activities are “Activity Calories”. Normal daily activities such as walking, eating (digesting food), typing, etc. are included in activity calories.
• Exercise Calories – These calories are burned because of exercise.

The sum of all of these groups of calories is the total metabolic rate.

The body gains or loses fat based on energy balance. Energy balance refers to the relationship between energy intake (eating) and energy expenditure (metabolic rate). The figures below describe the three states of energy balance.

Negative Energy Balance: Expenditure is greater than consumption (caloric deficit), causes weight loss.

Normal Energy Balance: Consumption and expenditure in balance, no weight gain or loss

Positive Energy BalanceConsumption exceeds expenditure (caloric surplus), leading to weight gain 

Nutrition Advice from a Certified Dietitian

We encourage you to take advantage of our one-on-one nutrition consultation to plan for a lifestyle of healthy eating that you will really value.  Changing your eating habits can be a daunting task.  That's why people call on our Nutritional Counselors.  You will greatly benefit from the knowledge we have to share with.  Our Registered Dietitians can help you get it right!  Good nutrition is not just for those who are interested in losing weight.  Eating right is absolutely essential for everyone!

We expect hard work & no short cuts.

Be prepared to work hard, keep a daily food journal, make cardio a priority and take time to improve your health and lifestyle. 

Healthy Diet Program

Our program is a multidisciplinary program that empowers people to manage their dietary intake for general health, diabetes or heart health. Our approach is to provide tailored help for each individual in relation to these needs.

Who is the program for? It is aimed at people -

• With little dietary knowledge, who want to increase their basic understanding of food and nutrition principles
• Who are overweight
• Who may suffer from ischemic heart disease, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, have undergone any form of heart surgery, have a family history of heart disease or a relative or friend that suffers from heart disease
• Who may suffer from type 2 diabetes, impaired glucose tolerance, have a family history of diabetes or a family member or friend suffering from diabetes

Totally Personalized

Personalized Patient Care

At Pro Medical, we strive to treat each patient as the unique person he or she is, each with their own set of unique circumstances and unique needs. Therefore, our first step is a complete medical evaluation including:

• Comprehensive History & Physical Examination
• Lab Work and Metabolism Testing (if indicated)
• Vitals, Body Mass Index and Body Fat Analysis
• Evaluation and Scheduling for EKG (if indicated)
• Evaluation and Scheduling for Exercise Stress Test (if indicated)

We can tailor your appointments to best suit your needs combine services from our exercise physiologist, psychologist or physician for sustainable weight loss and health outcomes. Our one-on-one weekly sessions keep you on track and support you all the way. We also offer flexibility with appointments for those whom travel often or travel further.

 Individualized Exercise Prescription

Professional Advice for a Lifestyle Change

Our dietitians are lifestyle change experts and can:

• Help you change habits and thinking patterns
• Provide scientific knowledge
• Empower you to make healthy choices in the long term
• Help you adopt a balanced and sustainable dietary intake
• Teach you the skills to ensure successful maintenance
• Monitor your progress with a metabolic rate test, muscle and body fat analysis, blood pressure monitoring, waist to hip ratio and blood tests.
• Offer support for people with health problems
• Monitor the positive changes for those with high cholesterol, diabetes or hypertension

Our exercise physiologists work with you to help ensure you are exercising efficiently, safely and boosting your metabolic rate to maximize your weight loss and health outcomes.

 Our psychologist helps you to:

• Modify irrational thoughts
• Address sabotaging behaviors
• Minimize risk of plateaus or weight regain
• Focus on the relationship between food and mood (comfort, boredom, reward)
• Set and reach your goals

Our Physician can provide:

• Support to those with or at risk of heart disease
• Access to a stress test to check the health of your heart

Information about risk factors such smoking, being overweight, and inactivity

How much Body Fat can I really lose?

When one declares that they want to "lose weight", what they often mean is that they want to lose fat. So, now that you've had your body fat percentage measured, what does the number really mean?

First, your body fat percentage is simply the percentage of fat your body contains.  If you are 150 pounds and 10% fat, it means that your body consists of 15 pounds fat and 135 pounds lean body mass (bone, muscle, organ tissue, blood and everything else).

A certain amount of fat is essential to bodily functions.  Fat regulates body temperature, cushions and insulates organs and tissues and is the main form of the body's energy storage.  The following table describes body fat ranges and their associated categories:

*General Body Fat Percentage Categories

Knowing your body fat percentage can also help you determine if your weight loss goals are realistic.  Remember, weight loss doesn't always mean fat loss. For example:

Let's say you're a 130# woman with 23% body fat, and you goal is to "lose 20 pounds":

Initial body fat: 130# x 0.23 fat = 30 # body fat

Lean body mass: 130# total - 30# fat = 100# lean body mass (bones, organs and all else)

Goal: 130# - 20# = 110 pounds

As you can see, the goal of losing 20 pounds is not realistic or healthy.   At 110 pounds, this woman still requires 100# of lean body mass (bones, organs, etc.), but would only be carrying 10#, or only 9%  body fat.   From the chart above, you can see that this is a dangerously low percentage.

A better goal might be for the woman to reduce her body fat from 23% to 18%.  In this case:

130# x 0.18 = 23 # body fat

100# lean body mass + 23 # = 123# goal weight

So, for this individual to achieve a lean, but healthy 18% fat, she would need to lose only 7 pounds of fat, reducing her weight from her current 130 pounds to 123 pounds.  Losing more than 7 pounds means losing lean body mass (usually metabolically-active muscle tissue), which is clearly not desirable.

So before you decide that you need to "lose weight", remember to consider that "weight" consists of both lean body mass and body fat.   Try to keep your weight loss goals realistic, and remember, keep the calorie-burning muscle, and lose only the fat.