Weight Management Center: Program Options
Medication Therapy
At the UPMC Weight Management Center, we work with patients to learn how to eat healthfully, learn new habits, and lose the weight permanently. In specific instances drugs may be used to complement these efforts. Technically called pharmacotherapy, drug therapy provides a useful supplement to lifestyle modification, helping to optimize sustainable weight reduction for patients.
Drug therapy does NOT refer to over-the-counter drugs that promise instant weight loss. In fact, many of these plant extracts and chemical preparations are ineffective and have harmful side effects and are mostly a combination of diuretics, stimulants, and laxatives that may lead to a temporary loss of water weight—and a good case of the jitters—but won’t lead to any long-term changes in your weight or metabolism.
Are you a candidate for a weight loss medication? If you’re like most people who want to lose weight, probably not. Diet pills, particularly prescription drugs, are powerful medicines designed for the treatment of chronic obesity, which is a very real, very serious medical condition.
Obesity is a complex, multidimensional condition characterized by excess body fat. Clinically, obesity can be defined in one of the following ways:
- in men: a physical condition resulting in a body mass index (BMI) greater than 28, with more than 25 percent body fat
- in women: a physical condition resulting in a BMI greater than 28, with more than 33 percent body fat
- in anyone: a physical condition resulting in a BMI greater than 27, with one or more health risks that could be significantly reduced by weight loss. Such risks include high blood pressure, high cholesterol, adult-onset diabetes, degenerative arthritis, sleep apnea, or lung disease.
Meeting these criteria does not necessarily identify a patient as a candidate for weight loss drugs. Many doctors advise against using drugs until less drastic measures have been tried first.
For lasting results, all drug treatment must be accompanied by a diet and exercise program. So no matter what your situation, the simple, inescapable truth is that diet and exercise are keys to attaining and maintaining a healthy weight.
Two, FDA approved medications with a proven track record in weight loss for the significantly overweight are: Meridia, the appetite suppressant, and Xenical, the fat blocker. Though both have been extensively tested and can be highly effective weight loss aids, for maximum effect they must be used along with a change in diet and lifestyle.
When weight loss medications are used, each patient’s progress is continuously monitored through monthly visits with the treatment team or with his or her primary care physician. In the initial trial period, each patient’s progress and side effects are monitored at two-week intervals. We work side-by-side with you to help you achieve your goals through safe and gradual weight reduction.