Pharmacy Weight Loss Programs
Is your local pharmacy the best place to get weight loss help?
In this article, we explore some of the pros & cons of getting weight loss help
from your local pharmacy and provide some examples of the type of weight management
products and services now being offered by pharmacies across Australia.
Benefits of getting weight loss help from your local pharmacy
The major benefits of getting weight loss help from your local pharmacy
include:
- Easy Access - Most people have pharmacies close to where they live.
- Trust - Pharmacists are trained professionals who are usually
very highly trusted.
- Existing Relationships - Many of us already have a relationship
with our local pharmacist whom we buy medicines and other health management
products from.
- Cooperation - Pharmacists have a track record of working well with other
health professionals such as GP's, dietitians, etc.
- Condition Management - In addition to helping us to lose weight, pharmacists
are also in a unique position to be able to assist us in the management
of weight related conditions such as diabetes for example.
- Cost Savings - Getting weight loss help from a pharmacy can be less expensive
than some other weight loss program options.
- Ongoing Support - Pharmacists can provide ongoing support which is a
critically important factor in successful long-term weight loss.
- Professional Weight Management Options - Pharmacies are now offering a range of professional weight management products and services, such as the Ultra Lite Program, Tony Ferguson Weightloss Program, and other 'in-house' type programs such as ones based on popular diets such as the CSIRO diet.
Professional Weight Management Options
One of the greatest benefits of getting weight loss help from your local
pharmacy is that many of them offer proven, professional weight loss programs
such as the Ultra Lite Weight Management Program.
In fact, some pharmacists are dedicating sections of their pharmacy, equipped
with consulting rooms and specialist trained staff, just to assist the growing
number of clients who want to lose weight.
This is certainly the case for the growing number of pharmacies who are
offering the Ultra Lite Weight Management Program.
For those who don't know a lot about the Ultra Lite program, it was
originally developed and delivered only by naturopaths but is now offered
by community pharmacies employing trained consultants.
Pharmacist trained to provide the Ultra Lite program advise clients to follow
a modified diet that balances protein and carbohydrates in the correct portion
sizes so that their body burns fat rather than carbohydrates.
The Ultra Lite program is an educational one that empowers people to make
better food choices and is therefore usually very successful over the long-term.
Pharmacies who promote the Ultra Lite program offer it as either a 5 or
10 week weight loss program, a 3 week detox and weight loss program, or as
a maintenance program for those who have achieved their goal weight or wish
to lose only a little bit of weight.
Ongoing support, which is a key element to maintaining long-term weight
loss, is provided by the pharmacy for the duration of the three, five or
ten week program period, which helps clients to fully develop and establish
their new healthy eating habits.
After the pharmacy has helped clients complete the weight loss part of their
program, additional support is available during the maintenance program if
required.
According to our friends at Ultra Lite, there has been nearly a 100% increase
in the number of pharmacies choosing to offer their program over the past
year (2006 versus 2005), making it even easier to find a fully trained consultant.
As we mentioned earlier, getting weight loss help from a pharmacy can be
less expensive than some other weight loss program options and more and more
health insurance companies are offering rebates for participating in weight
loss programs, making them even less expensive.
For example, the health insurers providing rebates for participating in the
Ultra Lite program includes:
- Australian Unity
- Grand United
- CBHS
- Health Care Insurance Limited
- Manchester Unity
- Medibank Private
- NRMA Health
- SGIC Health
- SGIO Health
- Queensland Teachers Union Health Fund
- St Lukes Health
In this article we've only explored some of the many benefits of getting
weight loss help from your local pharmacist and only briefly reviewed one
of the weight loss programs on offer.
For more information on what your local pharmacist can do to help you lose
weight, visit them and ask.
Meal Replacement Options
As well as offering very comprehensive weight loss
programs, many pharmacists are catering to the needs of those of us that
want to keep our weight loss simple by offering specially formulated meal
replacement options like the new Celebrity
Slim™ meal replacement shakes.
The Celebrity Slim™ Program is based on replacing 2 normal meals each
day with Celebrity Slim™ meal replacement shakes.
Celebrity Slim™ meal
replacement shakes come packaged in a 55 gram sachet and in 6 flavours including:
Chocolate, Vanilla, Strawberry, Banana, Café Latte and Caramel.
You can buy individual Celebrity Slim™ Sachets of each flavour – which
is ideal if you want to try each flavour or you simply need a quick slimming
shake at any time.
You can also buy 7 day Celebrity Slim™ take home
packs which contains 14 sachets (to replace 2 meals each day), enough for
one week of the Celebrity Slim™ program. The advantage of buying the
7 day pack is you save almost $5.00 on buying the individual sachets.
Each
Celebrity Slim™ meal replacement shake sachet contains a nutritionally
balanced combination of protein, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, minerals
and soluble fiber, to sustain your energy while you lose weight. They also
contain several important nutrients which help accelerate weight loss and
improve your health.
Celebrity Slim™ is available exclusively from Priceline Pharmacies
and Priceline stores.
Conclusion
More and more Australian's each year are turning to their local pharmacy
for weight loss help. In response to this, more and more pharmacies are beginning
to offer professional weight management products and services.
In this article, we explored some of the benefits of getting weight loss
help from your local pharmacy and provided some examples of the type of weight
management products and services now being offered by pharmacies across Australia.
Good luck with your weight loss and thanks for visiting weightloss.com.au.
© Copyright Ultimate Weightloss.
This article was written by Scott Haywood.
Scott is the editor of weightloss.com.au. Scott has developed an expertise in fitness and nutrition, and their roles in weight loss, which led him to launch weightloss.com.au in 2005. Today, weightloss.com.au provides weight loss and fitness information, including hundreds of healthy recipes, weight loss tools and tips, articles, and more, to millions of people around the world, helping them to lead happier, healthier, lives.
You can follow Scott on Google+ for more interesting articles.