Hi, I’m Elly, and I’m a registered Nutritional Therapist.

I help people with holistic approaches to better health, and I’ve teamed up with Weight Loss HQ by Treated to help you get the most from your weight loss treatment.

Today I’m going to talk about some of the common myths and misconceptions around weight loss injections, and separate some fact from fiction.

Myth 1: Weight loss injections guarantee weight loss

While weight loss treatments can be effective, they don’t work on their own. You still need to exercise and reduce your calorie intake to help them work at their best. If you don’t change your lifestyle too, you won’t get the best from them.

Myth 2: You can get ‘hooked’ on weight loss drugs

Weight loss injections don’t contain an addictive drug. They do have an effect on your brain to reduce your appetite, but they don’t cause chemical addiction.

Myth 3: Weight loss injections cause dangerous side effects

Although side effects are common, it’s really rare that they’re dangerous. These treatments have gone through a lot of testing in clinical trials, and most people only get mild side effects that improve over time, like nausea. Just watch out for common problems like dehydration, and if you do think your side effects are out of the ordinary, stop using your treatment and talk to your doctor.

Myth 4: Your weight will go back up when you stop medication

This could happen, but it shouldn’t as long as you stick to the healthy practices you’ve adopted while losing weight. It might also be more likely to happen if you lose weight at a very quick rate while taking your treatment – creating an overly large calorie deficit might even slow down your metabolism, making it easier to gain weight once you stop treatment.

You do have quite a lot of control over this. The more gradually you lose weight, the easier it will be for your body and metabolism to adjust. So try to aim for a more modest calorie deficit in the region of 10% of your current caloric intake, so if you currently consume 3,000 calories per day, aim for a 300 calorie deficit per day – monitor and adjust from there every 2-4 weeks.

There is a chance that when you come off your treatment, your appetite and cravings will increase. So you’ll need to maintain the same habits and routines you picked up while you were on the treatment.

This can be tough for some people. But the really hard part is learning these routines and losing the weight in the first place. Once you’ve got used to eating more healthily and exercising more, these should become easier habits to maintain, so you can stay at or around your new healthy weight.