‘Doctor, I want to lose weight,
can you help me lose weight?”
What do you think my answer would be
whenever patients ask me that ? In this video, I shall share the 3 things that
I would also always emphasize to my patients
who come to see me for help with weight loss.
Hi guys, welcome back to my channel,
If you are new here, I am Dr Chan,
I am a medical doctor from Singapore.
My passion is in helping people Unlock the power of
Lifestyle and eating habits to prevent and combat
diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, cardiovascular disease and other lifestyle-
related chronic diseases. This is the focus of
my medical practice, also the various training
and coaching programmes that I conduct
That is why The Habits Doctor is my social media handle
and also a nickname that people give me.
So here are The 3 things that I would always
emphasize to my patients Who come to see me
for help with weight-loss So if you are also embarking
on a weight loss journey
this might be relevant for you too.
Watch on.
No. 1 – Whatever that you choose
to do for weight loss
Make sure it is safe and healthy
Regardless of what your reasons are
For wanting to or needing to
lose weight I would strongly
encourage you to still put your focus on
Gaining Health instead of focusing only on losing weight. because if your primary and only goal
is losing weight
and you focus only on
doing whatever that works
to lose weight, then you might
accidentally lose your health in the process But if you put your full focus on,
your primary goal as optimising and gaining health,
especially in making the necessary adjustments
and improvement to your lifestyle
and eating habits to prevent and combat
lifestyle habits related chronic diseases,
then not only would you gain health,
you would also lose weight in a healthy manner.
No. 2 – Whatever that you choose to do for weight loss
make sure it is for forever,
What do I mean? What I am saying is that
Whatever that you do to lose weight,
make sure it is something that you are
willing to, able to, and good for you to, continue doing forever
I had quite a number of patients coming to me
With stories of
how they had gone on some 20 day, 30 day, 90 day
or whatever no.
Of days kind of special diet programmes
whereby they would do things like taking only certain
kinds of foods/supplements/ juices/shakes or meal replacement
for a period of say 30, 60, 90 days and they would lose a bit of weight,
quite a bit of weight during that time, but then they would gain back the weight that they lost during the programme
and maybe more, and add on some more, just months after
the end of their special diet programmes.
I remember very vividly this particular patient sharing with me,
when she came to me for help to lose weight
at my clinic, saying, “Doctor, a year ago,
I went on this special 90 days diet programme
It was actually very effective …
I lost more than 10 kg in 90 days ….”
and I asked, “ And?
And what happened after that?”
She replied, “Now is a year after,
I have regained that 10 plus kilos that I lost during that programme and on top of that
I have now gained another 10 more kilos”
And I said to her, “Are you surprised?
Are you surprised that that happened?
Because whatever special diet that you went on,
putting aside whether it was even
safe or healthy, and just focusing on
its effectiveness in helping you lose weight
shouldn’t it come as no surprise to you
that even though the special diet worked,
that it managed to help you
shed the kilos that you wanted to lose,
that you would regain the weight
that you lost If you go back to
your old lifestyle and eating habits
once you stop doing that special diet?
She then replied, “Yeah … doctor,
I knew it was not healthy, nor even sustainable
but it did work! It did help me lose weight,
the only problem was that I could not
maintain the weight loss after that …”
There are many ways that one can lose weight,
including many unsafe and unhealthy ones,
but there is only way to maintain a healthy weight
after successful weight loss, and that is through
maintaining a healthy weight through practising science-based
healthy lifestyle and dietary habits.
That is why I would
always emphasize to my patients who come to see me for weight loss,
that I am not for and I would not
put them through some kind of short-term
special diet programmes, but instead, I would focus on
evaluating their lifestyle and eating habits
thoroughly and holistically, and then from that
identify areas that needed changing
and improving, coach and support them
to make those changes successfully, changes to their lifestyle
and dietary habits that will not just
help them with weight management
but are also good for their health
in terms of preventing, controlling and combating
lifestyle-related chronic diseases. Because only changes
that are transformed into habits
can be sustained forever. Lastly, the third thing I would say to you if you are embarking on a weight loss journey is this
Whatever that you choose to do for weight loss
make sure it is something that you would
eventually enjoy doing.
Because if you don’t enjoy doing it,
you would not be able to maintain it.
Whatever lifestyle, exercise, or dietary habits that
have helped you achieve your healthy weight target
can only be sustained if you are not only
able to do it, but you have also
come to enjoy doing it. For example, the only way
that a regular exercise habit or a low sugar dietary habit
which contributed to your achieving and maintaining
a healthy weight, can be maintained for life
Is when they have become a part of
your lifestyle that you actually enjoy.
Depending on willpower and discipline to do something,
can only bring you that far. Even when it is not so easy
or enjoyable to do so in the beginning,
It is only when you are able to
eventually, learn to enjoy the new lifestyle habits
Would you be able to maintain and sustain them for life.
So these are the 3 things
I would always say to my patients who want to lose weight.
Whatever you choose to do to lose weight,
Make sure that it is something safe, healthy
and enjoyable to do.
And do it forever,
I hope you have found this video useful.
I am Dr Chan, and thank you for watching.
Let’s unlock the power of habits
One Habit, One Dose at a time..
