What to Expect

We understand your confusion!  For reasons we can’t quite figure out, there are very few offices like ours in the country.  Heartland Weight Loss is a doctor’s office where we focus on a subspecialty of medicine – but instead of specializing in lung disease (Pulmonology) or heart disease (Cardiology), we focus on excess weight (Obesity Medicine).  The science of medicine tells us that excess weight is a symptom of a deeper problem – something called cardiometabolic dysfunction.  We work on diagnosing the underlying problem(s) by taking a thorough history and gathering data (labs, measurements, body composition analysis) then we use a variety of tools gathered from the disciplines of nutrition, pharmacology, and psychology to craft a treatment strategy.  We take a comprehensive approach and work well upstream of the problem of excess weight. We often use FDA-approved anti-obesity medications, but they are not a required part of treatment.  We do not perform bariatric surgical procedures.

Our medical team is comprised of Obesity Medicine Specialists – doctors and nurse practitioners with advanced training in the field of Obesity Medicine.  Although the clinical team have a great deal of training and experience in our subspeciality of medicine, just like in other fields of medicine, there is no one-size-fits-all solution or treatment protocol.  Each practitioner approaches treatment using evidence-based guidelines, however, the strategies they deploy may vary slightly from person to person.  We encourage our patients to meet everyone on the team and figure out who they fit best with.

We won’t know this until we get there! Everybody is unique and everyone’s weight-loss journey is individual.  During active weight loss, we typically see you monthly to manage the medical interventions pillar of comprehensive treatment.  For optimal results, we encourage you to engage with specialists managing the other pillars of treatment as well.   Once we get close to weight maintenance, you and the clinical team will determine the best way to loosen the reigns without causing all of your hard work to come toppling down.  Our goal is to get you to regular yearly checkups – although everyone reaches that goal on their own timeline.

That’s difficult to answer without taking you down a hundred rabbit holes.  Excess weight (abnormal fat storage) is usually the symptom of a much deeper metabolic problem.  Until we can get that problem corrected, efforts to lose weight are rarely going to be successful.  Rather than try to starve you again (most of our patients have tried that many, many times), we work upstream to correct the underlying problem.  Although the process is often fairly simple, it’s rarely easy to execute.  The world around us isn’t set up to help us make lifestyle changes and implementing the necessary changes can often be a difficult process.  It requires tremendous support – medical, emotional, and psychological.  Often, adding an anti-obesity medication to these other support pillars can make the lifestyle changes much easier to implement.

Beginning January 1, 2025, we will no longer contract with any health insurance plans.  Most plans nowadays exclude treatment of excess weight. Those that cover treatment often come with high copays/coinsurance requirements.  For most people, it’s less expensive (and less risky) to move obesity treatment out from the umbrella of health insurance.  We believe quality obesity treatment should be affordable and accessible and we are proud to be able to offer our services at very reasonable rates.  See our pricing page for full details.