Weight Loss in Garden City, NY

At the offices of Dr. Christopher Calapai, located in Garden City and Plainview, NY, we take a comprehensive medical and nutritional approach to our weight loss programs. We aim to help patients lose weight and keep it off in the long term to promote a healthier lifestyle and increase body confidence. Whether you need to lose a few pounds or several, we can design a customized program to help you finally reach your goal weight.

What Is a Weight Loss Treatment Plan?

A weight loss treatment plan is designed to help men and women lose weight through a comprehensive approach that includes dietary changes, an exercise regimen, and medical evaluations and treatments. These components combined can accelerate weight loss and help patients reach their goal weight and improve their lifestyle.

These plans can do what well-intentioned lifestyle efforts often cannot by addressing the root cause of the inability to lose weight and providing patients with the accountability, tools, and treatments they need.

What Are the Benefits?

Living life at an unhealthy weight not only affects your appearance and your confidence, but it can also affect your health. Being overweight increases the risk of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, increased cholesterol levels, high blood pressure, cancer, sleep apnea, and other health conditions.

When you undergo a program to overhaul your diet and lifestyle, learn more about your hormone levels, and address the primary cause of weight gain, you’ll experience all the benefits of a healthy weight and lifestyle. Other treatment benefits include the following:

• Reduced body weight
• Accelerated results
• Reduced body fat percentage
• Increased confidence
• Reduced risk of obesity-related diseases
• Increased energy levels
• Better sleep
• Clothes that look and fit better
• A customized treatment plan for each patient’s unique needs
• Accountability

Why Is Weight Loss So Difficult?

For some, weight loss is difficult because it’s tied to lifestyle choices. Many people are unaware of how their choices affect their bodies and weight. For others, an unknown hormone deficiency prevents them from losing weight despite their best efforts.

Whether you’re not exercising enough, your hormones are out of balance, you aren’t eating the right foods and don’t know how to, or you don’t have the accountability and tools necessary to lose weight, we can get to the root cause of why weight loss has been difficult for you and begin a treatment plan that will finally help you achieve a healthy weight.

What Can Impact Weight Gain? 

Hormones

Imbalances in hormones like estrogen, testosterone, insulin, cortisol, and thyroid hormones can disrupt the body’s ability to regulate weight. High insulin levels from a poor diet can promote fat storage, while other hormone imbalances can lead to abdominal fat gain. Others can slow metabolism or affect where fat is stored. 

Stress

Chronic stress raises cortisol levels and encourages fat storage, especially in the midsection. It often triggers cravings for sugary, high-fat foods. Stress can also lead to emotional eating or disrupted eating habits. Combined with sleep disturbances caused by stress, this can impact weight regulation and overall metabolism.

Lack of Knowledge About the Body

Without understanding how their body works, patients often make choices that hinder fat loss. Misjudging macronutrient needs or relying on misleading “healthy” food labels can result in imbalanced diets. Educating yourself about metabolism and nutrition can make long-term weight management more achievable.

Hydration Levels

Dehydration slows metabolism and can lead to unnecessary snacking when thirst is mistaken for hunger. Water is essential for digestion, nutrient absorption, and calorie burning. Stay consistently hydrated to optimize energy levels and support healthy weight management.

Amount of Sleep

Poor sleep disrupts hunger and fullness hormones, increasing cravings for calorie-dense foods and reducing the body’s ability to regulate weight. Sleep deprivation also lowers energy levels and makes physical activity less likely. Seven to nine hours of quality sleep is needed to maintain a healthy metabolism.

How and Why Our Program Works

One of the reasons our program is so effective is that it takes a nutritional and medical approach to weight management. We combine lifestyle changes with professional treatments, which work together to help the body burn fat, and as you progress along your treatment plan, you’ll see the scale begin to change and look and feel even better.

We incorporate blood testing, injectable treatments, and hormone evaluations into our treatment plans to cover every base so that you’ll lose weight and achieve a balanced and healthier lifestyle.

Our Goals in Our Weight Loss Programs

Your health is our top priority as we work with you toward achieving your weight loss goals. We focus on helping you lose weight at a healthy and sustainable rate while monitoring your overall wellness, including regular evaluations of your bloodwork. Education is an important part of our approach. We will provide you with the tools and knowledge to understand your body and maintain your results long term.

What To Expect

The first step in this process is the initial consultation. We’ll meet with you to discuss your treatment goals, answer your questions, and learn more about your medical history. Once we confirm that you’re a good candidate, we can move forward with the process and begin your customized program so you can lose weight and experience all the benefits of this program.

Bloodwork Testing

One of the fundamental aspects of our program is blood testing. We perform a comprehensive panel that can identify hormonal imbalances, vitamin and mineral deficiencies, how your body absorbs food, how it digests food, and if you’re suffering from food allergies.

This comprehensive blood test allows us to get a better idea of your current health so that we can move forward, correct hormone, vitamin, and mineral deficiencies, create a diet plan that accommodates any food allergies, and promote improved gut health to enhance food absorption and digestion.

Dietary Changes

Dietary changes are key to any weight loss protocol. Our programs focus on a low carbohydrate diet to limit carbohydrate intake to accelerate weight loss. You’ll consume healthy carbohydrates while avoiding starchy and refined ones.

Since carbohydrates are the body’s primary energy source, by reducing carbohydrates, we can limit the amount of excess glucose created during the digestion process, which can eventually turn into stored fat. The low carbohydrate diet is designed to force the body to burn stored body fat for energy instead of carbohydrates.

Correcting Hormone Deficiencies

Your blood test panel will provide detailed information about your hormone levels. Often, patients can’t lose weight not because they’re not making an effort but because they’re living with a hormone deficiency. Many of your hormones work to control your appetite, metabolic rate, energy levels, and your overall weight.

Different factors can contribute to an imbalance, affecting your body composition and weight. With a customized treatment plan, we can correct hormone deficiencies and address and correct hormone-related weight gain.

How Are Hormone Imbalances Treated?

Hormone imbalances can be addressed with options like injections, topical creams, or pellets, depending on what works best for you. Treatments are selected based on your symptoms, lab results, availability, and preferences. Regular follow-ups help us monitor your progress and make adjustments as needed for optimal results.

Exercise

We’ll also give you information about the benefits of exercise, how often you should get regular activity, the best exercises to perform, and why increasing your caloric deficit is an important part of this process. Exercise also has many other benefits that will enhance your overall health.

Semaglutide Injections

We also offer semaglutide injections, which are safe weight-loss medications that are injected into the subcutaneous tissue once a week. These injections regulate insulin levels and overall blood sugar, decrease appetite, promote feelings of fullness, and help accelerate results.

What Is Semaglutide?

Our medical weight loss programs may incorporate semaglutide, a medication that helps regulate appetite and blood sugar levels. This medication mimics a hormone in your body that helps control hunger which makes it easier to manage portion sizes and reduce cravings. Semaglutide supports gradual and healthy weight loss while improving overall metabolic health.

What Can I Expect From Semaglutide Injections?

With your once-per-week injections, we will start you at a lower dose and then gradually increase the dosage as your body adjusts. This helps mitigate side effects and helps you avoid plateaus later on. Once on the medication, you will notice reduced feelings of fullness and fewer cravings plus a steady, consistent reduction in weight. Regular follow-ups allow us to adjust the treatment as needed to maximize effectiveness.

Can Semaglutide Be Used on Its Own?

Semaglutide is always part of a comprehensive approach that includes patient education, regular lab testing, and guidance on lifestyle changes like nutrition and exercise. This combination helps create sustainable results and supports your overall health while using semaglutide.

Regular Weigh-In Appointments

Once you begin this program, you’ll undergo regular weight-ins every two weeks. We’ll track your progress at these appointments and ensure that everything is working well and you are happy with your treatment protocol and results.

Why Is Physician-Supervised Weight Loss So Important?

Physician-supervised weight loss allows for careful monitoring of health markers like pancreatic enzymes, blood sugar, cholesterol, and more. With this information, we can identify potential issues early on and make sure your weight loss plan supports overall health and that you are responding well to the treatments. With regular check-ins, we can adjust your program as needed to maintain your safety and maximize the effectiveness of your progress.

FAQs About Our Weight Loss Program