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Dr. Dao explains if Chinese medicine can be used to help you lose weight.
Dr. Dao:
Traditional Chinese men look at weight management as a comprehensive approach. One of the things that we look in women is a woman’s bodies are designed to hold weight.
So frequently compared to men, and this is one thinks a mistake, any woman should not compare their weight loss regimen with the men, okay?
They are just totally different. Your body is a totally different make up. Your body tends to hold fat a little bit more than men.
Some of us, we say a lot more, but it’s a little bit more than men so what happens is that when you are trying to lose weight you do not, and here’s the key – you do not want to lose too much weight in a short period of time, because every time you do that, when you put your body into this really flight state where your body will try to gain more weight in a greater way much later.
So frequently a lot of times losing weight in a quick hurry doesn’t really help.
So the way to really approach the weight loss and weight management in Chinese medicine very first, we do lifestyle counseling.
We got to look at the lifestyle and we look at how you eat, the kind of food you eat. We look at what’s the reasonable amount of weigh that you should lose.
I usually advice my patients not to lose more than one pound a week, okay? When you are starting to lose more than one pound a week most likely you are getting those weight back, okay?
We want to lose weight in a very sustained way so what I mean is this weight will not come back forever, okay, and the key is you got to change your lifestyle first. So we look at the diet and we don’t actually prescribe diet, we prescribe a good meal plan because diet is something that you do now and you don’t do later.
So there’s no such thing. We eat a good meals.
So we teach all our patients to have better quality foods, watching moderate calories, not low calorie, okay, but moderate calorie, looking at protein level, looking at fat level – just looking at a holistic look at ways how that meals are eaten for women, so that’s one.
Second, stress. We look at the stress level. Stress level increases satiety. So a lot of times we want to make sure that the stress level is moderate.
We want to make sure a woman has plenty of tools of managing their stress level.
And third is sense of happiness. When you are happy you tend to be able to have more control over your behavior.
You don’t really need to fulfill your craving. You don’t really need, since you are happier, you don’t really need to eat a lot of foods to make you feel better, make yourself better.
So a lot of times it’s very important. So the emotional aspects of weight management is so critical. So that’s one aspect that we tend to work with our patients a lot.
Then we look at what we can do to help a patient giving them exercise regimens that they actually can do.
A lot of people work so we try to work around their work, trying to give them exercise regimen they actually can do for long period of time.
There are situations where you really have to go to the gym. If you pay money you would go so a lot of times we will make sure that a woman actually would sign up for that because they have this guilt trip if they spend money.
They just have to do it. That works. So you have to kind of take a look at psychology of this weight management so the psychology aspect of a weight management besides emotional aspect is also very important.
Then finally then we look at acupuncture and herbs. We look at how some of the techniques that we use can be helpful in improving circulation, increasing metabolism, improving digestion and help them to lose weight naturally.
About Dr. Dao:
Dr. Dao is a Licensed Acupuncturist in the State of California and is a Diplomat of Chinese Herbology NCCA. Dr. Dao has been active in the TCM profession as well as professional organizations. He was an examiner for the California Acupuncture Committee and also participated in the Chinese Herbology Exam development for NCCA. Dr. Dao is well known and respected for his special interest in reproductive and gynecological conditions. Dr. Dao is a member of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, Pacific Coast Fertility Society, and American Association of Oriental Medicine.
Visit Dr. Dao at Tao of Wellness
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