Seven Ways to Lose Weight Safely and Successfully

As a surgeon, I’ve had the privilege of helping thousands of people on their journey towards a healthier weight. Losing weight safely and successfully means taking a holistic approach to your own wellbeing that combines good science, realistic planning, proper support and sensible lifestyle choices. Here are seven ways I share with my own patients who are looking to lose weight.

Get professional support

Working together is always better than struggling to achieve things on your own. With personal support from a qualified professional, you’ll be able to create your own tailored weight loss programme that clearly identifies key improvement areas you want to focus on. With proper assistance and support you’ll be able to build an achievable programme that fits with your own schedule – and also get a clear picture of the results you’re achieving.

Make a commitment to fitness

There’s absolutely no doubt about it. Being physically fit is one of the best possible ways for anyone to support their own weight loss journey. By building strong bones and muscles you’ll also reduce the risk of diseases like high blood pressure, diabetes and many kinds of cancer. Physical fitness is a huge contributor to reducing tension and stress – and that means it can make a huge positive contribution to your mental health. You can improve your overall physical fitness by combining healthier food choices with a combination of aerobic and anaerobic exercise.
 

Consider non-invasive weight loss programmes

While some patients go down the route of surgery as part of a holistic weight loss programme, I frequently recommend non-invasive methods that can be highly effective as part of their tailored plan.

One example is the Allurion Programme that avoids the need for any kind of surgery, endoscopy or anaesthesia. This ground-breaking solution simply requires patients to swallow a gastric balloon pill. Expanding safely in the stomach like a soft balloon helps quell the feelings of constant hunger that so many weight loss patients struggle with.

With over 70,000 successful patients worldwide, the Allurion Programme can be literally life-changing, especially for people who’ve already been leading healthy lifestyles but suffer from feelings of constant hunger. And in case you’re wondering, the swallowable gastric balloon passes naturally through the body after roughly 16 weeks, allowing patients to lose an average of 10-15% of their body weight within that time. This revolutionary gastric balloon pill programme also gives patients the further benefit of six months of dietary support from a nutritionist, helping them to build and manage sustainable lifestyle changes.
 

Focus on you

It’s easy to get lost in the stresses and strains of daily life. I often remind my patients that their weight loss journey is mental as much as it’s physical. While everyone’s journey is different, what’s key is setting achievable goals – rather than expecting miraculous results from a quick fix solution or promising yourself to make unachievable lifestyle changes. Take a step back for a moment and focus on building a tailored weight loss programme that prioritises both your mental and physical wellbeing.

Rethink food

Eating more healthily doesn’t have to mean making huge changes to your lifestyle. Even relatively small tweaks can make a big difference to managing your weight – and they’ll provide a big boost for your overall health at the same time. It’s a good idea to keep track of your food choices alongside activity levels. You’ll build a better understanding of how things are progressing. And when things feel tougher than usual you’ll be able to look at the whole picture with your support network of family members, friends and medical professionals. There are lots of tools out there to help monitor your progress. I recommend the Allurion Connected Scale that helps my patients monitor their body composition and BMI.  And don’t forget there are other perfectly good options for monitoring your progress – like writing a good old-fashioned diary.
 

Stay in control of snacking

I’ve lost count of the number of my weight loss patients who struggle with ‘never feeling full’. The good news is that achieving your weight-loss goals doesn’t have to mean cutting out snacking altogether. The key is being really honest about how much you’re eating overall, what you’re eating, and knowing when to stop. Of course that’s easier said than done – and that’s where the support of a medical professional or nutritionist can be invaluable.  Like many other medical professionals I noticed the effects of the pandemic and resulting lockdowns on my own patients’ behaviour, with many people reducing physical activity and eating more. As a major cause of weight gain, snacking has risen far higher than pre-pandemic levels. By making my patients feel fuller for longer, the Allurion Balloon (previously known as the Elipse Balloon) helps them avoid the temptation to graze throughout the day.

Plan ahead

Make planning ahead a central part of your own weight loss programme. Think honestly about what meals you’ll be having over the next week, and how snacking is going to fit in to the picture. This will give you the chance to prepare some meals in advance and stock up with the right foods and ingredients – rather than succumbing to temptation with poor food choices when you get hungry.

We all know that eating less, eating more healthily and exercising more are the keys to any successful weight loss plan. Equally, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution that works for everyone. I recommend my own patients to consider clinically proven solutions like the Allurion gastric balloon pill programme that take a holistic approach to losing weight. And most importantly of all, look to getting proper advice and support from qualified healthcare professionals who can help guide you along your weight loss journey.

Speak with our healthcare professional today to find out how much the gastric balloon cost (UK) could be for you and get you started on your weight-loss journey today. Book your consultation today.

A Gastric Balloon is a soft balloon placed in your stomach. The balloon takes up space in your stomach and induces weight loss by increasing the feeling of fullness. This means that you are more likely to reduce the amount of food you eat throughout the day. To find out how much the swallowable gastric balloon price (UK) book your consultation here.