Healthy Outcomes: Weight loss without surgery

Exercise hasn't done the trick and the latest fad diet is not working. The numbers on the scale keep ticking upward, and weight-loss surgery is on the horizon.

Practitioners at the Healthy Outcomes office in Georgetown say patients who find themselves in this situation have a noninvasive alternative: medical weight loss interventions.

Patients who want to lose anywhere from 15 pounds to upwards of 150 pounds  meet with dietary consultant Jennifer Morelli and Dr. Fabricio Alarcon, a board-certified bariatric physician, to determine the source of a patient's extra weight.

"We have people who have come to us after they have tried every diet under the sun," Morelli said. "They have come to us as a last ditch effort, and we are able to get them results."

On an initial visit, new patients fill out a nutrition profile, she said, and the nutrition and weight loss team begins to identify ways to solve the weight problem, including education, meal planning and meal replacement programs.

As a bariatric physician, the doctor said he sees patients for weight gain and obesity, but he does not perform invasive surgery.

Many factors can contribute to weight gain, including food allergies, thyroid conditions, medications, vitamin deficiencies or diabetes, among other the possibilities, Alarcon said.

At Healthy Outcomes, he not only determines lifestyle and dietary choices that may be contributing to obesity, but also runs blood tests to pinpoint additional sources of weight gain or inflammation, working to fix the body chemistry and metabolism in order to provide results.

"Gaining weight is not accidental," he said. "Gaining weight is caused because there is an imbalance in the system that promotes fat storage."

Although weight gain may be caused by any number of factors, Alarcon points to the widespread increase in availability and consumption of simple carbohydrates as a contributing factor in the epidemic of obesity in the United States.

Over nearly three years, Morelli said Healthy Outcomes has produced results for more than 90 percent of patients, helping them to lose extra weight and establish healthier eating habits.

The office offers a variety of medical-grade nutritional supplements and food substitutions to be used in accordance with the prescribed nutrition plans as well as noninvasive laser body contouring to break up pockets of fat in problem areas, Alarcon said.

"Dieting is not easy.  We have all these foods and we try to find alternatives to help you succeed," he said. "We have a great variety of low-carb food solutions to help you with compliance so we can fix the metabolism, facilitate weight loss and keep it off."

Healthy Outcomes is located inside Family Health of Georgetown at 2 Lee Ave., for more information or to schedule an appointment, call 302-856-4092.