When you get semaglutide in Winter Garden from Horizons OBGYN & Aesthetics, you also get educational resources and ongoing support. Medical weight loss may seem complex, but with the right team, reaching your health goals can be simple. To streamline and demystify this innovative medication, we’re explaining how it works in detail.
From curbing hunger and controlling blood sugar to encouraging weight loss and reducing the risk of chronic disease, semaglutide can be life-changing. Learn how semaglutide might help you reach your goals with the support of our expert team.
What is semaglutide?
Semaglutide is a weight loss medication which imitates a naturally occurring hormone known as glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1). By reducing food intake and lowering blood sugar, semaglutide encourages gradual weight loss.
The FDA approved the first GLP-1 drug in 2005, and since then, the safety and efficacy of this medication type has only improved. Semaglutide can treat:
- Excess fat in the stomach, thighs, buttocks, arms, and more
- High blood sugar
- Poor cardiac health
- Obesity
When paired with lifestyle adjustments, such as a healthier diet and increased activity, semaglutide has transformational effects. Complementary treatments can boost its effectiveness by improving metabolism, increasing nutrition, and strengthening muscles.
How does semaglutide work?
GLP-1 is a naturally occurring hormone that your stomach sends to your brain to tell your body when you are full. Semaglutide imitates GLP-1, curbing hunger and slowing digestion. As a result, you can eat less and lower your blood sugar, encouraging weight loss over time.
Semaglutide Patient Journey
When you choose Horizons OBGYN & Aesthetics for semaglutide in Winter Garden, we’ll start with a consultation before moving forward with treatment. Here’s how your semaglutide patient journey might look:
Consultation
At your initial consultation, we’ll take some standard measurements such as height, weight, and BMI to form a foundation for your weight loss goals. We’ll also review your medical and family history to better understand your treatment needs. We often order lab tests at this time to better assess your eligibility for medical weight loss medications.
With a comprehensive understanding of your health and treatment preferences in mind, we can discuss your options for weight loss. You may purchase semaglutide month-to-month or in vials that last 3 to 4 months. Together, we’ll agree on a plan for moving forward with treatment.
Treatment
If we decide you are a suitable candidate for semaglutide weight loss, we’ll get started with treatment. We administer semaglutide with subcutaneous injections, meaning it’s a shot delivered into a fatty area of your body—a method patients generally find comfortable.
When prescribing your semaglutide dosage, we start slowly and monitor your symptoms carefully to avoid any adverse effects. After we’ve established that your body tolerates the medication well, we can gradually increase your dosage to achieve sufficient progress toward your weight loss goals.
We’re happy to perform your injections in our clinic. However, most patients opt to do injections at-home to save themselves the extra office visits. Before sending you on your way, we’ll provide detailed instructions for administering your own semaglutide injections. If you’re curious about this process, check out our blog, Medical Weight Loss: How to Administer At-Home Injections.
Follow-Up Appointments
Semaglutide is a powerful tool, which can give you powerful results—but we monitor our patients closely to keep track of progress and any possible side effects. If you’re progressing too quickly or too slowly, we want to adjust your treatment plan to ensure you lose weight both effectively and safely. You may come in weekly, monthly, or every 3 months for follow-up appointments.
At these visits, we’ll take measurements, review your progress, discuss any symptoms you’re experiencing, and revisit your dosage to ensure it’s adequate. If you’re seeking accelerated weight loss without increasing your dosage, we can pair additional treatments with semaglutide in Winter Garden.
Typically, we like to monitor your body’s response to medical weight loss for 1 to 4 months before introducing another treatment. Your exact timeline depends on how much weight you’re aiming to lose and your individual response to the medication.
Ongoing Support
At Horizons OBGYN & Aesthetics, weight loss is a lifelong journey. To maintain a healthy body, you’ll need to continue nutritious choices and an active lifestyle. Even after you’ve achieved your weight loss goals or decided to stop taking semaglutide, we’ll continue to support you through wellness, aesthetic, and educational care.
Getting the Most Out of Semaglutide
Semaglutide alone does not cause weight loss. To see actual results, you need to make the right lifestyle choices. Any significant body transformation comes from integrating other treatments and habits with semaglutide.
Lifestyle Choices
You know it’s true, and you’ve heard it a million times: Diet and exercise are crucial for weight loss. Semaglutide does make it easier to eat more nutritiously, but you have to listen to the medication for it to work. Use your time on medical weight loss to train your body to crave less and eat better.
To see optimal results while taking semaglutide in Winter Garden, focus on eating foods high in protein and low in fats. This diet can reduce body fat while promoting lean muscle mass. Eating smaller, more frequent meals can also promote the medication’s efficacy.
To further facilitate healthy weight loss progress, exercise for a minimum of 150 minutes each week. It’s common to lose muscle mass while taking semaglutide, which detracts from your shapely figure. To minimize your loss of muscle mass and enhance your appearance, prioritize muscle strengthening exercises when you workout.
Combinable Treatments
With your input, we personalize every semaglutide treatment plan. In many cases, we recommend incorporating additional treatments to optimize your body for fat loss and muscle gain. After 1 to 4 months on semaglutide injections, consider adding Lipo-Mino, hormone therapy, Emsculpt NEO, or all 3 treatments to your regimen.
Lipo-Mino
We suggest adding Lipo-Mino—a supplement containing B1, B2, B6 and metabolism boosters—to provide energy support and help prevent nausea while taking semaglutide in Winter Garden. Lipo-Mino makes it more possible to exercise consistently and continue losing weight with semaglutide.
Hormone Therapy
Due to age, certain medications, pregnancy, and other life events, many people have deficiencies in their hormone levels. Hormones play crucial roles in most of your body’s processes. From your metabolism to your reproductive health, hormones like testosterone and estrogen maintain essential functions.
Inadequate hormone levels can lead to:
- Weight gain
- Loss of lean muscle mass
- Low energy
- Poor sleep
- Mood disturbances
- Decreased libido
- Decreased bone density
Hormone therapy can replace or optimize your hormones to help you reach your health goals.
Emsculpt NEO Body Contouring
Certain pockets of fat resist diet and exercise no matter how hard you work, especially after multiple pregnancies. For these cases, we recommend Emsculpt NEO body contouring. This cutting-edge treatment burns fat and builds muscle simultaneously using high-intensity focused electromagnetic (HIFEM) technology and radiofrequency (RF) energy.
Emsculpt NEO can treat excess fat and weak muscles on your:
- Abs
- Glutes
- Quads
- Hamstrings
- Biceps
- Triceps
- Love handles
- Calves
Emsculpt NEO can provide finishing touches to your weight loss journey by finally removing stubborn fat pockets. The end result—you can achieve your ideal figure.
Semaglutide Frequently Asked Questions
As a leading provider of semaglutide in Winter Garden, we get many questions about this transformative medication. Here are some of the most common questions we encounter:
What are the side effects of semaglutide?
Like with any prescription drug, semaglutide can cause side effects—mostly gastrointestinal issues, like an upset stomach or constipation. For this reason, we review your personal and family history extensively to screen for risks and evaluate your candidacy for this treatment. We also start slow and monitor your symptoms to catch any adverse reactions quickly.
Why should I choose an OBGYN to receive weight loss medication?
It may seem odd to visit an OBGYN for weight loss medication, so let us explain why it’s the ideal setup. As specialists in women’s care and pregnancy, we’ve observed that women and those who have been pregnant often struggle with stubborn fat, which can significantly impact self-esteem.
As a result, we evolved our offerings to include more aesthetic and wellness treatments, like semaglutide. We’re highly experienced medical providers, which allows us to offer more informed care compared to many other med spas that solely focus on cosmetic weight loss.
How fast can I lose 20 pounds on semaglutide?
While the average semaglutide patient can lose over 10% of their body weight (200 pounds = over 20 pounds) in the first 6 months of treatment, every person is unique and will experience weight loss at their own rate. Many factors, including lifestyle choices and paired treatments, can impact how quickly you lose weight with semaglutide.
How are semaglutide and tirzepatide different?
Semaglutide mimics GLP-1 (glucose-like-peptide-1), whereas tirzepatide imitates both GLP-1 and another hormone—GIP (glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide). Since we offer both medications, you and your provider can compare them and decide which best meets your needs.
Visit Horizons OBGYN & Aesthetics Weight Loss Clinic
Countless people have lost weight and changed their lives through semaglutide in Winter Garden. So what’s stopping you? With the friendly, knowledgeable staff at Horizons OBGYN & Aesthetics on your team, you’ll have everything you need to make your weight loss dreams become a reality.
We are here for your entire journey. Once you hit your weight loss goal, we can tailor your treatment plan to help you maintain your figure for life. Discover the possibilities by scheduling a consultation.
Continue reading: How to Find the Best Weight Loss Clinic; Medical Weight Loss: How to Administer At-Home Injections
