Weight Assessment
Your initial consultation will include a thorough examination of your current medical needs and any underlying causes of your weight gain.
This assessment allows us to administer a treatment plan that will be most medically appropriate and effective for you.
- A comprehensive medical examination to determine the causes of your weight gain
- An assessment of how your weight gain is affecting your physical and mental health
- Screening for weight-related health issues such as high blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, thyroid disease, sleep apnoea, hormonal disturbances and mental health conditions
- Order appropriate tests such as a blood test, sleep study or mood assessment
- Assess your biometrics, including your height, weight, waist circumference, fat percentage, muscle mass and BMI
- Guidance in setting weight loss and other health-related goals
- Administer a treatment plan most appropriate for your current medical and lifestyle needs for effective weight loss
- Provide ongoing medical care and monitoring of other health conditions during weight loss
- Support you with long term weight maintenance and relapses where needed
Body Composition Analysis
When you need to know more than just your body weight.
Body weight as a single measure can be deceiving, as it can be affected by other factors such as fluid retention, constipation or even hormonal fluctuations.
A body composition scan is a more accurate look into your physical makeup and can help your bariatric doctor to determine things like:
- Are you maintaining your muscle mass whilst losing weight?
- What is your Basal Metabolic Rate? ie. the energy you burn each day just by being alive.
- What is your body fat % and where are you carrying your weight?
All of this information can be used to guide the administering of a treatment plan for you.
At Alevia we offer in-house body composition analysis, with our state-of-the-art technology, to assist in determining what weight loss plan is right for you, as well as ensuring you preserve muscle mass throughout your weight loss journey.
Ketogenic Diet Plans
With our evidenced program, you’ll earn how to control cravings, beat hunger and regain control of your life.
With our ketogenic diet plans, patients achieve rapid weight loss without hunger! This can be achieved through the use of meal replacements, or with regular food.
When the body is in fat burning mode, appetite is suppressed, making weight loss so much easier. Patients report feeling more in control of their eating and are encouraged by the quick results they see.
If a low carb diet is not for you, then we have a range of other dietary plans to achieve your weight loss goals:
- Intermittent Fasting(eg. 5:2) and Time Restricted Eating (eg. 16:8)
- Mediterranean diet
- DASH diet
Are you vegetarian or vegan? Fructose or lactose intolerant? Have Coeliac disease or gluten sensitivity? Don’t worry, we have you covered!
Our goal is to help you achieve rapid and safe weight loss — typically with weight loss of 1-1.5kg per week for women and 1.5-2.5kg per week for men.*
* Results may vary for individuals
Lifestyle Program
In addition to our prescribed dietary and exercise program, we will provide you with our educational program, “Tools For Success”, with 10 modules designed to teach you to make those long lasting lifestyle changes and overcome barriers to weight loss.
- Optimum nutrition and physical activity for weight control
- Healthy fats
- Curbing carbs
- The importance of protein
- Getting active
- Emotional eating
- Stress and comfort eating
- Breaking bad habits
- Dealing with hunger and cravings
- Relapse prevention and weight maintenance
Weight Loss Medications
What happens when lifestyle change alone is not enough and weight is causing significant health problems?
Weight loss medications may be used in patients who have a significant weight amount of weight to lose and lifestyle efforts on their own have been largely unsuccessful.
This can occur when:
- BMI > 30kg/m2 or above or
- BMI > 27kg/m2 and an obesity health related condition such as high blood pressure, sleep apnoea or diabetes.
Medications can also assist with prevention of weight regain, when patients have lost their weight, and there has been an increase in the appetite hormones that promote weight regain.
They may also be helpful in patients who have had weight loss surgery and there has been some weight regain.
Always discuss your suitability for weight loss medications, including benefits and side effects with one our bariatric doctors or a pharmacist.
Weight Loss Medications
Liragulatide
(Saxenda™)
This is a medication that works in two ways – it slows the passage of food through the gut making a person feel more full and satisfied, and it works directly on the appetite centre to reduce hunger and cravings.
Orlistat
(Xenical™)
A drug which, when taken in combination with a healthy diet, can reduce absorption of fat and assist with weight loss.
Naltrexone/Buproprion
(Contrave)
This is a combination of two anti craving medications. These medications, works on the reward and appetite centre in the brain to hunger and cravings, thereby reducing weight.
Phentermine
(Duromine™)
This is a mild stimulant medication that has a powerful appetite suppressant effect and helps patients to overcome some of the natural hunger that makes weight loss difficult.
Topiramate
(Topamax™)
A medication that is used for migraine and epilepsy prevention. It is widely used “off label” in the Obesity clinics in Australia and overseas for the management of obesity as it has also been found to have some appetite suppressing effects.
Diabetes
Medications
Some diabetes medications help patients to feel full and satisfied after a meal. These include metformin and a class of drugs called GLP-1 agonists – such as Byetta, Bydureon, Trulicity.
Bariatric Services
We provide independent, unbiased information on surgical options to assist with weight loss
At Alevia, we will help to answer some of these common questions:
- What are my surgical weight loss options?
- Is surgery right for me?
- What can I do if I am not yet ready to undertake surgery?
- What if I have regained weight after bariatric surgery?
We also provide pre and post bariatric care:
- Optimising health prior to surgery
- Rapid weight loss prior to surgery to make it a safer procedure
- Monitoring of health and nutritional deficiencies that may occur post surgery
- Optimising diet post surgery to ensure maximum surgical success
- Medications to assist with appetite control after surgery if still needed
Bariatric surgery may be considered if you have had a long term battle with obesity and if you have weight related conditions that may be improved with dramatic weight loss.
In some conditions, such as diabetes, there is very compelling evidence of the benefits from weight loss on diabetes, that bariatric surgery is now recommended as one of the first line treatment options for this condition. (Rubino et al. 2011)
Bariatric surgery is indicated if:
- BMI is >40 or
- BMI >35 with an obesity related health condition such as diabetes, hypertension, obstructive sleep apnoea.
Surgical Options
Psychologist Services
Our bariatric doctors and psychologists are trained to help you work through the psychological factors that may be contributing to your weight gain, including binge/emotional eating disorders, body image issues, anxiety and depression or other life stressors.
We understand how emotions, stress and mental health issues can play a huge role in weight gain, which is why our doctors are dedicated to providing each patient with the psychological care they deserve.
Common emotional issues our patients struggle with include:
- Mental health conditions such as anxiety/depression that can affect relationships with food and healthy habits
- Cravings and binge eating
- Self-sabotaging treatment plans
- Body image problems
- Alcohol and other drug use
Our Alevia doctors are committed to holistic care for your health and wellbeing. We have a team of psychologists that can provide you with the support and tools to overcome any emotional hurdles in your weight loss journey.
Exercise Plans
We tailor an exercise plan just for you.
The good news is — you don’t have to live at the gym in order to be healthy and active!
Our approach to exercise is simple. Our doctors will tailor an exercise plan for you, according to your ability, physical limitations and activity preferences.
The health benefits of exercise are well known in almost every area of your health and wellbeing, so we encourage our patients to get moving and stay active to complement a healthy diet, but only in a way that will suit your lifestyle and needs.
Telehealth Appointments
One-on-one medical support from the comfort and convenience of your home.
We offer convenient Telehealth appointments via phone and video call, which means that even with a busy lifestyle or other barriers that might prevent you from being able to see us on-site, you can still receive evidence-based medical weight loss and ongoing one-on-one support in your journey.
Learn more about how Telehealth appointments work here.
Facebook Community Group
Join a community with like-minded patients
Exchange tips, inspiration, recipes and other tools to help you get and keep the weight off!
At Alevia we are a community that supports one another. We know that doing weight loss alone can be difficult, so we have created a private Facebook support group for the exchange of tips, inspiration, recipes and other tools to help you get the weight off and keep it off.
The Alevia App
We have developed an in-house, fully customised Alevia app that enables you to track your weight, log your mood, access recipes, your personalised treatment plan and extra resources!
We have developed an iOS and Android app letting you keep track of your weight loss journey as well as a number of other useful resources including recipes, exercise plans, and more.