Everything you want to know about medical weight loss with semaglutide, plus how our providers help you avoid the most common weight loss mistakes.
Forum Health Austin is proud to offer the game-changing weight loss medication semaglutide as part of our popular Medical Weight Loss Program.
There is a lot of information out there about semaglutide, how it works, where to get it, cost, and more. We’ve gathered your most popular questions and have the answers you need!
First, What is Semaglutide and How Does it Work to Lose Weight?
How Does Semaglutide Work for Weight Loss?
Semaglutide mimics the GLP-1 hormone in your body, which helps to control your blood sugar by blocking the liver from releasing sugar into your bloodstream, slows down how fast your stomach empties food, and causes your pancreas to release insulin.
Together, these functions can help you feel less hungry, causing you to eat less food and lose more weight.
What Makes Forum Health Austin’s Medical Weight Loss Program with Semaglutide different, and more successful?
Today it is probably easy to get the semaglutide prescription from your doctor and begin taking the medication. However, that does not guarantee that you are going to lose the weight, much less keep it off.
You know you need to eat healthier and exercise, but how do you know what diet is best for your specific body? What kind of exercise is going to help you burn fat and build muscle? Who is going to answer all of these questions and keep you accountable when you hit a roadblock? What if you’ve done everything “right” and still aren’t shedding pounds? What then?
At Forum Health Austin, we focus on three key components to ensure that your medical weight loss program with semaglutide is effective!
- Detox: A healthy gut is key to a robust immune system and your body’s ability to detox. Did you know toxins are stored in fat cells? Many people who have trouble losing weight are not addressing their toxin build-up. Detoxification is more than just doing a juice cleanse or intermittent fasting. It’s about having sufficient nutrients to lead toxins to the appropriate pathways to be excreted. For example, we need B vitamins for the methylation process in the phase 2 liver detoxification pathways. There are different toxins in your environment that can cause your body to be in flight or fight response, preventing the body from having enough rest to shift into a parasympathetic mode of healing, rebuilding, detoxifying, and letting go of fat cells. Toxins contributing to weight-loss resistance include:
- Stress (cortisol breaking down muscle to generate blood sugar)
- Processed foods (packaged foods, eating out)
- Environment: Mold, Lyme, pesticides, VOCs.
- Custom Diet and Exercise: Based on your lifestyle, stressors and individual needs, there are certain diets and exercises that are going to work better for you. In addition, you need the accountability and support from a health coach to offer guidance throughout the process. We work with you to optimize your medical weight loss plan and ensure you are adopting the habits that will make your weight loss long lasting.
- Hormone Balance: We check your suboptimal thyroid that your regular labs do not show, and check if you have imbalanced sex hormones like estrogen dominance in women, as well as insulin resistance that may lead to low testosterone in men and can also cause you to lose weight.
Learn more about Forum Health’s Medical Weight Loss with
A Few More Facts About Semaglutide
Works best for those with a BMI greater than or equal to 30 mg/kg or 27 mg/kg. At least one weight-related co-morbidity such as insulin resistance, hypertension, high cholesterol, heart disease and/or gout.
No, semaglutide is not a type of insulin or a substitute for insulin.
No, semaglutide is not a stimulant. Phentermine is a stimulant that helps curb your appetite.
All patients start on the lowest dose of 0.5 mgs injected subcutaneously into belly fat once a week. Dosing increases by 0.5 mgs weekly (as tolerated) up to a total weekly dose of 2.5 mgs.
Weight loss will be gradual as you work your way up to the target dose of semaglutide, at which time you will see the most amount of weight loss. Results differ for each person, in clinical trials participants were on semaglutide for about a year and a half.
Your program is designed to help you adopt healthy lifestyle changes, while semaglutide helps you lose the weight, that will promote lasting weight loss where medication is no longer needed. Your provider will help you determine the best continuity plan for you.
Patients require a prescription for all compounded medications, just as they do for retail pharmaceutical prescriptions.
Forum Health only uses compounding pharmacies that are SF FDA Registered 503B facilities that combine the same active ingredients as semaglutide to meet the individual patient's needs, without the brand name and at a lower cost. The “generic” version if you will.
No. Forum Health does not prescribe Ozempic or Wegovy that are in short supply.
Once enrolled in the program and evaluated by our qualified providers, the medication and the supplies will be shipped straight to your home or office. The price of the medication is included in the program for the first 8-to-10 weeks depending on your custom dose. You may purchase additional doses after the initial program if recommended by your provider.
Semaglutide may be covered by insurance under the branded names. However, when it is not, branded Semaglutide can be up to $1,500 a month. Forum Health bypasses the hassle of insurance and offers a full-service medical weight-loss program with better pricing on the medication through our compounding pharmacy partnerships.
- Foods to Avoid: Limit sugar, fast-digesting carbs, and processed foods. Fried foods and fatty foods, such as fast food, processed foods, carbonated and sugary drinks, and foods high in sugar and saturated fat.
- Alcohol
Yes. Semaglutide is considered to be safe and is FDA approved for weight loss in the branded version Wegovy.
- Nausea
- Vomiting
- Diarrhea
- Stomach pain
- Constipation
Semaglutide is not recommended for those with a history of thyroid cancer, type-1 diabetes, history or pancreatitis, people who are pregnant, or if on other blood sugar lowering medications.
Studies show a clear benefit of adjunct treatment with semaglutide in post-bariatric patients. However, consultation with your healthcare provider is necessary to determine if it’s right for you.
Remember, There isn’t a One-Size-Fits-All Weight Loss Solution!
At Forum Health Austin we are dedicated to helping you on your health journey using functional medicine. And this is what functional medicine is, analyzing how each component of your life contributes to the state that you are in, and how we can unravel that to find the solution that not only helps you lose weight, but improves the quality of each aspect of your physical and mental health.
Ready to lose weight with semaglutide in Austin? Contact us for more information or to schedule an appointment today!
