Monterey Bay Certified Farmers Markets

• Market Programs
• From Market to Table
• Can You Dig it!
• Live and Local
• Health and Wellness
  • About Dr. Jeff Lester
  • Health Articles Archive
• Monthly Events
• Music
• Market Calendars

Farmer & Vendor Information Where to find what you're looking for Edible Paradise Newsletter Sign up to receive news & events Volunteer and Sponsorship Get more involved with the markets

Getting people well is an art. It is a joint effort between patient and physician. As a physician, Dr. Lester serves as a detective out to find why a person is not healthy and how to help get them well. Dr. Lester chooses from several medical systems to find the best approach to achieve this. Patients are encouraged to eat plenty of fresh, well grown fruits and vegetables and well raised meats, poultry and fish. Mind and body connections are discovered as to how they are preventing wellness in a person. Education and training are critical in helping patients reach long term success in their future. Effective medical care is very rewarding for both patient and physician.

Dr. LESTER’s Monthly Article

THE SCIENCE BEHIND LOSING WEIGHT

Are you one of those people who wonder: “Why do I eat so little yet I cannot lose any weight?”

Many people are very conscious of eating a low-fat diet, however this is not producing adequate weight loss for most people. The secret for significant weight loss seems to be the low-glycemic diet. The biochemical process that hastens weight loss is to avoid triggering the powerful hormone insulin.

When insulin is secreted in the bloodstream it rapidly stores any dietary sugar as fat and reduces the release of calories. This key point answers why even when exercising vigorously your body may not lose weight. Many of us have experienced a period in our lives when we were working-out hard and didn't lose much weight. Unless you are building a lot of muscle, exercise is the most inefficient way of attempting to lose weight. Exercise should be performed for health and fitness more than for weight loss.

Another factor in the body’s resistance to losing weight with exercise is when there is a lack of muscle. When a person who already has a lot of muscle exercises, carbohydrates and fats burn rapidly as muscle is the main burning unit in the body. Fat does not burn calories. It is merely a storage sac for triglycerides that are the combination fat and sugar. Triglycerides are important storage molecules that provide long burning fuel. When a person who has a high percentage body fat exercises, not much fat burning occurs. There are not enough muscle burning units to be able to lose much weight through exercise in this situation. When dense foods are eaten that are high in fat, carbohydrates or both, people gain weight easily. When most people lower the fat in their diet they tend to eat more carbohydrates. This triggers insulin that creates more of a problem in the inability to lose weight.

We have an effective solution to help people lose weight at the California Medical Weight Management. Of the 85 patients that we have placed on the program, 95% have had little to no problem losing significant weight on a weekly basis. Our first patient on the program lost 50 pounds in 3 months. He is no longer diabetic, hypertensive, fatigued or in pain. The program has been easy for him to adhere to because it provides a multi-disciplinary approach with very effective tools. This includes a structured dietary regimen with specifics about what to eat.

Our program offers a three-step, medically supervised weight management system:

• Step one is a rapid weight loss stage.
• Step two is a transitional stage to graduate into Step 3.
• Step three is the long-term maintenance stage that incorporates nutrition education and exercise to insure the weight stays off permanently.

Weekly visits to our medical clinic provide the guidance and support needed to insure that you reach your ideal weight rapidly and safely. Patients learn the mistakess they made that made them gain the weight and learn proper dietary habits that lead them to long-term success. An FDA approved prescription and several natural supplements are used to jump start the weight loss process by stopping the appetite for the wrong foods initially. These are completely safe and very effective. Once these incorrect habits are halted, then it becomes easier to learn the proper habits. An analogy is like using training wheels to help a person learn how to ride a bike. Once they are ready, then the training wheels are removed. Once a person's body is used to eating well they will begin to crave these healthy foods.

The most important feature is the individual monitoring and encouragement people receive on a weekly basis from our staff. It becomes fun and exciting sharing the weekly successes with each individual patient. When people slip we get them right back on the successful track by using the necessary tools.

Next month: I will discuss the healthiest foods we can eat that can help us lose and maintain a healthy weight.

Jeff Lester, DO can be contacted at either of his two offices for an integrative medical consultation or the California Medical Weight Management physician supervised weight loss program.