Medical Weight Loss

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Meet Dr. Joshua Long:
Our Bariatric Surgeon

A nationally renowned and double-board-certified Denver bariatric surgeon, Dr. Long uses a partnership care model with each patient to tailor care to their individual needs. Patients routinely thank Dr. Long for his warm, compassionate bedside manner. He’s considered to be at the top of his field, having performed over 1,000 bariatric surgeries. Peers praise his technical skill, and he has some of the lowest complication rates among bariatric surgeons in the nation. Dr. Long and the staff at the Bariatric and Metabolic Center of Colorado consider it an honor to serve every patient with the highest quality of care.

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Dr. Joshua Long headshot

Dr. Joshua Long

MD, MBA, FACS, FASMBS

Medical weight loss uses non-surgical approaches including lifestyle modification, medications, and meal replacements to assist patients in losing weight. Medical weight loss can be more effective than stand-alone diets or exercise programs because of the educational curriculum, comprehensive design, and ongoing support that they offer*.

Types of Medical Weight Loss Solutions

There are three broad categories of medical weight loss:

Lifestyle Transformation Therapy

Lifestyle Transformation Therapy is a lifelong lifestyle change that produces weight loss. Lifestyle Transformation Therapy involves using a series of stepwise lifestyle changes to transform your weight and your health*.

Weight Loss Medication

Weight loss medications are prescription drugs designed to help you lose weight*. There are several different medications which can act in different and sometimes complementary ways. Some of them work by decreasing your appetite.

You can find a full list of weight loss medications, and their impact and side effects, here.

Weight loss medications are only effective when they are used in conjunction with dietary modification and increased exercise. In this setting, patients on average lose 5-10% of their total body weight*.

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Meal Replacement Programs

Meal replacement programs refer to products that include pre-prepared shakes, dinners, and bars with an exact caloric intake. Although there are many different brands, they generally work using similar methods. OptifastTM, for example, replaces all of your normal food intake with a precise calorie limitation while maintaining healthy protein levels, which may help blunt the appetite to some degree. Many of these products are vitamin fortified.

In addition to calorie reduction, meal replacements also work by stimulus reduction, or limiting your number of food options in order to decrease the reward-based cycle and expansive desire to eat. Because they cannot completely replace all nutrients in real food, meal replacement programs are generally limited to 12-16 weeks under a doctor’s supervision only. Following this time period, a very careful and methodical transition to permanently changed lifestyle will be required to maintain results*.

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Bariatric Surgery

If your goal is to lose a few pounds, and you have a BMI <35, then medical weight loss alone may be the right solution for you.

However, if your BMI is above 40 (or 35 with weight-related health risks) and you have tried to lose weight before and failed, then bariatric surgery (in conjunction with a life-long commitment to Lifestyle Transformation Therapy) may be the powerful tool you need to lose weight and keep it off.

Dr. Joshua Long headshot

This page was medically reviewed by Dr. Joshua Long, MD, MBA, FACS, FASMBS. Dr. Long is a double-board-certified bariatric surgeon and bariatric medical director for Parker Adventist Hospital.
Full Bio: Dr. Joshua Long, MD, MBA, FACS, FASMBS
Page Updated: January 12th, 2021

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*Please note that individual results can vary and are not guaranteed.