The Venture Medical Weight Loss program combines advice on diet, exercise, rest, overall healthy lifestyles and tried weight loss supplements that include appetite suppressants. Our physician-supervised and clinical approach helps our patients achieve and maintain a healthy weight and lifestyle. Our licensed healthcare professionals focus on helping our patients achieve an overall healthy lifestyle through preventative maintenance. After consultation with each patient, a detailed medical and lifestyle history and a directed physical exam, our medical staff creates a tailored and comprehensive plan for each patient.

WHAT TO EXPECT

The Venture Medical Weight Loss Program focuses on the essential components needed to achieve healthy weight loss, a healthy diet with hunger control, and exercise with a boost of energy. A medically trained staff, under the supervision of a physician, assists you with every step of the way! This, coupled with lifestyle changes and healthy eating habits will ensure sustainable weight loss.

Initial Visit: On your first visit, the attending physician will provide an assessment with a thorough medical history and targeted physical exam, and answer any questions you may have. We will walk you through the systematic step-by-step approach of our weight loss program and leave you with goals you WILL be able to achieve.

We do not believe in dramatic overnight results or drastic changes, but in a step-wise approach to a sustainable weight loss. To help maintain your diet of limited caloric intake, we prescribe and dispense appetite suppressant medications such as those discussed in this program.

Follow-Up Visits: Every 4 weeks, you will come in for a follow-up appointment. Together with you, we will evaluate your success and make any modifications necessary to ensure you are successful in your weight loss journey. Throughout your time with Venture Medical Weight Loss, our entire staff is available to help you. We will never judge you for being overweight or not being able to show dramatic results! You did not gain this weight overnight – we will not expect you to lose it overnight either!

PRESCRIPTION MEDICATIONS

Most of our patients start at 15 mg phentermine once a day before quickly moving to twice a day. As time goes by, some patients may need to be on 45 mg or 60 mg total for the day. On your subsequent visits, we do not hesitate to increase your dose to keep your hunger in control. Our doctors have extensive knowledge of the pharmacology of this medication, (how it behaves in your body) which has been around for over 65 years. Depending on your prior treatments, how many days or months ago you took it, how long, how much dosage, all depends on how your body will respond to the medication this time around. How exactly you take the medicine this time when (before or after a meal), how far apart determines how long and how well it will be effective for your hunger control. This is where guidance from our clinic can make a huge difference in whether you are successful or not compared to an ordinary “pill mill” clinic. Many patients have found that no matter how many times they tried the same medicine somewhere else, they were back at square one. But after starting to come to our clinic, and taking it the way we guided, the pounds started to come off again for many of our patients. Our tried methods have also allowed most patients to continue hunger control longer, with meds AND after they are tapered off.

So what are you supposed to do if Adipex (Phentermine) is not the Appetite Suppressant for you? Some patients feel that Phentermine no longer works for them. May be because they have become tolerant to its hunger suppressing qualities (some call it “becoming immune”); maybe because they developed side effects such as insomnia, constipation, etc.; or they simply did not qualify for phentermine for one reason or the other. Back in 2012, the FDA approved the introduction of a combination of phentermine with topiramate, sold as Qsymia. Similar to Phentermine, Topiramate has been around for many years. The FDA approved it back in 1996. It was initially introduced for the treatment of Seizures and Migraines. Just like how Rogaine (Minoxidil) was introduced to control high blood pressure. Minoxidil was later found to be useful for the regrowth of hair and treatment of baldness and made a market entry as Rogaine.

Similarly, patients taking Topiramate were observed to experience weight loss due to the suppression of hunger. Research trials were conducted and it was also approved for this purpose, in a combination called Qsymia along with Phentermine. While Qsymia is available as a prescription medication for weight loss, sometimes its price can be inhibitive to many patients. Many primary care physicians have prescribed Topamax in combination with Phentermine to achieve weight loss for their patients. Although specifically not FDA approved for weight loss by itself, to some extent topiramate has shown promise by reducing hunger. Our doctors have extensive knowledge of the pharmacology of phentermine as well as topiramate and their combinations. Sometimes, if phentermine alone won;t work for you, you may be a candidate for the combination or other medications that we can prescribe and dispense.

After Your Successful Treatment: Losing the weight is half the battle, keeping it off is the real challenge. Those who have been battling the bulge know this very well. Our doctors start working to get you ready to face that challenge and the change your lifestyle from the day you walk into our clinic. How to eat, when to eat, when not to eat, how much to eat when, are all the strategies that go into effect when training your brain and your body in signalling each other to increase your metabolic rate, controlling your hunger and maintaining your weight for a long long time. Once you start approaching your goal weight, or even start thinking of taking a break from the treatment before reaching your goal for whatever reason (vacation, financial concern, length of treatment, etc.), you ideally should seek advice from the doctor on how to go about it. Abruptly stopping the treatment (cold turkey) may set you up for a major failure. You run the risk of your hunger coming back with a vengeance leading to regaining all the weight you lost and then some. If you are thinking of taking a break and restarting the treatment after a while, stopping abruptly may lead to tolerance development.

That means your body “remembers” you took phentermine before and the next time you restart, your body may either not respond to it at all, may need higher than safe dosage to suppress your hunger, or may not lead to a similar rate of weight loss as before. All the reasons for seeking the expert advice from our knowledge and experience. Unlike an ordinary clinic, we slowly and responsibly taper you off to try and prevent the hunger from coming back so that you can keep it in check on your own, eventually without the meds. More importantly we try and preserve your body’s ability to respond to appetite suppressant again should you decide you need help or boost in the future in maintaining your weight with this treatment. Depending on the dose (30, 45 or 60 pills per month) you are at this point in your treatment, your tapering or weaning off could take 7 to 9 weeks, and we strongly recommend it for all the reasons discussed above. We offer to lead and guide you before releasing you from your current treatment in a responsible way. 

Statements on this page are not validated by the US FDA. Individual results may vary.