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If you are only just embarking on your weight loss journey, you may well be exploring how you can introduce more exercise into your routine. However, hitting the gym can feel intimidating. Joining a class might be off-putting if you don’t feel you’re that fit.

So, how can you start to introduce more movement into your weeks as part of a healthy weight loss program, perhaps alongside weight loss injections or other support?

The following are some of the best exercises to undertake when you are starting out on your weight loss journey. Remember, what works for you might be different to what works for others. Tailor your activity to suit you and your weight loss goals.

Walking

Walking is one of the best forms of exercise to introduce into your life when you are focusing on losing weight. Why? Because it’s so easy to incorporate for one.

Making simple changes to your routine – such as getting off the bus a couple of stops early, or walking to the supermarket instead of taking the car – can make more difference than you might imagine.

On average, we burn 200–350 calories per hour on a walk. Of course, how many calories you burn depends on the intensity of your exercise and whether it’s on flat or hilly terrain. You can use a calculator to work out how much you’re burning each day if that motivates you.

Strength training

This doesn’t mean going to the gym and reaching straight for the heaviest weights! In fact, you don’t have to go to the gym at all at the beginning of your weight loss journey.

There are a host of simple strength exercises you can easily perform at home each day and if you stick to a short routine you’ll notice that you get stronger relatively quickly. The likes of press ups and squats can be broken down into less strenuous movements.

As a result, you can start at whatever level suits your current fitness and build up from there. Eventually you might want to join a gym to access a range of weights and weighted equipment, but at the start of your journey that’s not a necessity!

Yoga

Depending on the type of yoga class you attend, you can burn a reasonable amount of calories while enjoying the added benefits to your mental wellbeing and flexibility. As with strength training, start at a level that suits you.

Join a gentle Hatha yoga class to learn the basics and understand how classes work. Once you build up your confidence, you might want to consider trying a stronger practice – such as Ashtanga or Vinyasa flow.

One of the best parts of yoga is that it works your mind as well as your body. When you’re focusing on holding a more challenging posture, often your mental noise quiets. You’re also combining movement with mindful breathing, which can help calm your nervous system and alleviate stress.

Given that research indicates chronic stress can contribute to weight gain, yoga could help you start to see changes in your weight because you feel less stressed, as well as because you are moving more.

The new year is a time that many people endeavour to make positive changes to improve their health and lifestyle, and over the past two years, a particular prescription medication available at specialist weight loss clinics has helped to make these commitments stick.

According to a study by researchers from University College London, around 1.6m people in Great Britain used weight loss injections such as semaglutide (Wegovy) in the first year they were available, with another 3.3m people interested in using them over the next year.

It is also the time that many people who started to use semaglutide as soon as it became available on the NHS may be required to stop using it, according to NICE guidelines.

It is important to take the process of stopping your weight loss medication as carefully as you did the process of starting the medication. To understand why, here are the answers to some common questions we get asked about the end of the process.

How Do You Stop Using Weight Loss Medication?

Weight loss medications such as semaglutide and tirzepatide (Mounjaro) provide a number of effects which work together alongside health, lifestyle and dietary changes to make it easier to lose weight over time.

Because these medical and lifestyle effects work in tandem, it is important to take a gradual approach to coming off of the medications and maintain your fitness, diet and support regimens in order to ensure that the weight comes off and stays off.

The positive of this is that after many months of doing the work, you are in a better position to keep going and make it second nature.

The Process Of Coming Off Weight Loss Medications

• You will have a discussion with your doctor about the process of coming off a weight loss medication, what to expect and how to handle some of the effects, such as food noise.
• You will gradually reduce your dose from your maintenance dose down to nothing.
• You should maintain your existing diet.
• You should maintain your exercise routine, or increase it if you feel able to.
• There should be follow-up appointments to see how you get on without it.

Can You Abruptly Stop Using Weight Loss Medication?

It is not advisable to suddenly stop using any prescribed medication without consulting your doctor, and when it comes to weight loss medications, stopping taking your injections without an exit plan can cause you to regain some of the weight you have lost.

Whilst there are no physical withdrawal symptoms associated with ceasing use of GLP-1 receptor agonists like Wegovy and Mounjaro, the health benefits and effects caused by the injections, such as feeling fuller, lower blood sugar and cholesterol, and less food noise, will stop.

Your appetite tends to return once the medication completely leaves your system, which typically occurs two to three months after the medication ends.

How Do You Silence Food Noise?

An effect of weight loss medication is to reduce food noise, the mental preoccupation with food caused by a mix of physical, neurological and psychological factors.

The best way to stop food noise is to reduce the amount of time you think about food. This includes focusing on your exercise, planning nutritious meals ahead of time, practising mindful eating to change your relationship to your food, focusing on your sleep and minimising stress factors that can lead to less-healthy food choices.

Over the past five years, GLP-1 receptor agonists have revolutionised the medical world and allowed for the creation of complete healthy weight loss programmes that encourage people to make profound changes to their lifestyle.

At a local specialist pharmacy, medications such as Wegovy and Mounjaro are paired with nutritional plans and exercise regimes designed to make the most of the medication, ensure all of your nutritional needs are met with fewer calories and that targeted exercises help you to meet your fitness goals.

However, your choices of medication are likely to increase in the next few years, as at least two oral weight management medications are in the latter stages of regulatory approval, are expected to be prescribed in the United States as early as 2026 and potentially could appear on pharmacy shelves in the UK before the end of next year.

What Are Weight Loss Tablets?

There are two types of weight loss tablets, oral semaglutide and orforglipron, both of which use the same mechanism of action as Wegovy and Mounjaro do.

In fact, oral semaglutide is the same active ingredient used in Wegovy and the diabetes medication Ozempic, with the difference being that, whilst the latter two use an injector pen, oral semaglutide takes the form of a pill.

How Are Tablets Different To Existing Injections?

The biggest difference between orforglipron and oral semaglutide compared to Mounjaro and Wegovy is that, whilst the latter are taken each week in controlled doses injected using a special pen, the former takes the form of a daily tablet.

This means that the vials of injectable medication need to be refrigerated, have a relatively short use-by date and people who are prescribed them will typically also need to set up a sharps bin in order to safely dispose of the needles used for injection.

None of this is required for tablets, which last a lot longer and can be stored in most cool, dry places.

What Are The Advantages For Weight Loss Tablets Over Injections?

One of the goals manufacturers have for weight loss tablets is to make GLP-1 receptor agonists more widely accessible.

Tablets are far cheaper to manufacture due to the fact that complex injector pens no longer need to be supplied, and those savings can be passed down to people who are prescribed the medication.

As well as this, some people have a phobia of needles, which may discourage them from looking into weight loss medications that all currently use injector pens. Tablets are easier to take, even if you have to do so every day rather than every week.

Will Weight Loss Tablets Replace Injections?

At present, this seems unlikely. Weight loss tablets have been shown to be demonstrably effective, but injections have allowed for greater levels of weight loss thus far.

As well as this, the convenience of weekly injections means that the desire for a treatment you only have to think about once a week is still desirable.

How Will Weight Loss Tablets Affect Treatments In The New Year?

• Dosage schedules would change from one jab a week to one tablet a day.
• Tablets could make weight loss medications cheaper and more accessible.
• Tablets do not need to be stored in a refrigerator.
• Injection pens will not completely disappear.

For those who want to lose weight, healthy weight loss programmes can be very effective. But real, lasting success is not just about using weight loss drugs, but also some radical lifestyle changes.

Injections of weight loss medication can certainly help, but a common problem for people who undertake such programmes is that when they finish, they often start to put the weight back on again.

Some might ask what the point is, but the truth is that those people who have had the most success in going from being severely overweight to very fit, with or without the help of weight loss medication, have embraced major lifestyle changes to do so. That means two things: a healthier diet and lots of exercise.

Is Diet More Important Than Exercise?

An article in Medical News Today in July highlighted research suggesting diet may be more important than exercise in losing weight, but the truth is that both will help. Nonetheless, there is an obvious truism here: exercise burns off lots of calories, but if there are fewer being consumed in the first place, there are not so many that it needs to burn off.

Improving your diet may seem a tough challenge at the best of times, especially if you are partial to takeaways, processed food, chips, items with high sugar content and alcoholic beverages. At this time of year, the challenge can seem a lot steeper.

This is for a range of reasons. With the clocks going back and the days getting ever shorter, the desire for some comfort food is bound to be there, especially something hot on a cold winter’s night. It is because of such conditions that Britain has a tradition of stodgy puddings, but these contain a lot of sugar.

Such things would be fattening enough on their own, but Christmas looms on the horizon and with it all kinds of festive indulgences. Whether it is high-sugar items like Christmas pudding or the general overeating (and booze) of the festive season, this seems to be a very bad time for diets.

The Benefits Of Starting Your Diet Now

On the other hand, it may be quite the opposite. For many people, the pattern is to indulge themselves around Christmas, and then make a New Year’s resolution to get themselves in shape, one of the most common New Year’s resolutions. However, this can involve trying to leap from one extreme to the other very suddenly, a difficult thing to do.

By adopting a stricter diet now, before the festive season arrives, you can avoid this cliff-edge scenario.

What is more, by eating sensibly over the time between now and the end of the year, you will be well on the way to getting in better shape at the very time when everyone else will be trying to get started.

Even by doing simple things like just having enough turkey (lean white meat) while avoiding the excessive stuff like pigs in blankets with their pork and fatty bacon, even Christmas Day can be better.

Moreover, if you can improve your diet when the temptations are all around you, things will seem a lot easier in January when everyone is trying to eat healthily.

When you go to a weight loss clinic and are prescribed injectable medications such as Wegovy and Mounjaro, this treatment often accompanies other major changes to a person’s lifestyle and their diet.

One major change that often accompanies this is cutting alcohol intake, and with Dry January approaching, a particularly interesting and somewhat unintended effect that quite a few people who are currently prescribed injectables are experiencing is that they are choosing to drink less.

Part of this is an understanding that mixed drinks, wine and especially beer contain quite a few more calories than many people expect, with these empty calories often adding up over a night out.

However, a study from Virginia Tech University goes further than this and suggests that one of the effects of GLP-1 receptor agonists such as semaglutide is that it causes alcohol to be processed more slowly, which could lower or even stop people from drinking.

How Does Semaglutide Affect Alcohol?

The study wanted to confirm and try to explain the experience that some people on semaglutide had, where they noticed that they had fewer cravings for alcohol and drank less when they did imbibe.

To this end, the pilot study took 20 people of a roughly similar BMI, half on a maintenance dose and half on nothing at all, and gave them an alcoholic drink that needed to be finished within 10 minutes, before measuring breath alcohol, appetite, effects and taste over the course of four hours.

What they found was that the people in the study taking GLP-1 receptor agonists felt less drunk and their breath alcohol levels rose more slowly.

This is believed to be for similar reasons to why people lose weight on the injectables; the drug slows the rate at which the stomach empties, which in turn slows down the rate at which alcohol enters the bloodstream.

Could This Change Alcohol Dependency Treatments?

Alcohol, like other drugs, is more addictive if its effects appear quicker, so if a drug lowers the rate at which alcohol enters the body in both objective and subjective measures, the body will have less to process at a time, and people will feel less intoxicated as a result.

This could have quite dramatic effects for people affected by alcohol dependency and alcoholism, for which existing treatments range from non-medical measures such as interventions, detoxing and abstinence, to strong medications that affect the brain.

These medications include opioid blockers such as nalmefene and naltrexone, as well as disulfiram, a medication that deters relapses by creating unpleasant reactions to alcoholic substances, which can include mouthwash, perfume and vinegar.

By contrast, GLP-1 receptor agonists stop alcohol dependency through the stomach; by reducing the speed at which alcohol enters the body, it stops people from getting drunk as easily.

Some previously heavy drinkers on semaglutide noted that this has also coincided with a change in drinking behaviour; rather than quickly drink a pint of beer, for instance, they would tend to slowly sip it instead.

Whilst this data is promising, it must be noted that the Virginia Tech trial was a very limited pilot study, but its results corroborate with previous small-scale studies and suggest that the medication could have the potential to help people with addictions.

As weight loss injections become more widely available from dedicated clinics, and additional medications show promise in tests, more people are likely to enjoy their benefits than ever before.

By slowing down the rate at which the stomach empties, medications such as semaglutide (Wegovy) help to naturally suppress appetites, reduce hunger cravings and can help people lose weight as a consequence.

It works best as a complement to lifestyle and dietary changes, often being the first step to helping those changes occur. With that in mind, here are some steps you can take to maximise the chances of reaching your weight loss goals.

Seeing It As Part Of A Balanced Lifestyle

One unfortunate consequence of the publicity semaglutide has received is that it has created the perception that it is a “magic bullet” solution that will fix any weight management issues.

Whilst it can provide some significant help and support, it should not be seen as a replacement for regular exercise, a nutritionally balanced diet and other, similar life upgrades, in the same way that vitamin supplements cannot replace a healthy diet.

Adapt Your Diet

One interesting aspect of weight loss injections that people often notice is that you need to choose your calories very carefully.

If you have a lower appetite and eat less, you will lose weight, but you also need to make sure you are not missing any nutrition you get from protein, fibre, vitamins and minerals.

There are a lot of options available to you, and lots of sources of advice when it comes to meal planning, meal prepping and the best types of healthy snacks.

The best part of adapting your diet is that you avoid some of the side effects of certain medications.

Build Up An Exercise Routine

A semaglutide-based weight-loss journey will incorporate an exercise regimen that builds based on your rapidly increasing capabilities.

Initially, diet and medication will constitute the majority of your weight loss, but to retain the same rate of weight loss, a growing exercise routine will play an ever-increasing role.

Beyond the importance of burning calories, some of the weight loss will initially include loss of bone mass and muscle mass. This is something that is reversed thanks to exercising, and there are a lot of ways to work out that can fit around a busy lifestyle.

As well as this, targeted exercise can help suppress cravings in and of itself and stop some of the plateauing that can result from losing weight, as your metabolism adapts to fewer calories.

Set Up A Support Network

Whilst the first step towards a healthier life is one you have to take yourself, you do not have to face the journey alone. Your friends, family and loved ones are there to help you every step of the way if you only ask.

They can help keep you accountable, let you know how well you’re doing, or even help with some of the practical aspects of your weight loss journey, such as meal-prepping and going to work out at the gym with you.

If you are heavily overweight and need to get weight loss injections to help get your weight under control, it is important to understand from the very beginning that this is just part of the process of ensuring that you not only take lots of weight off, but keep it off.

You might have heard a lot about the kind of drugs that can be prescribed for this purpose, such as Wegovy, Mounjaro and Saxenda, which are licensed for use in the UK. These drugs can work in various ways, such as suppressing appetite or helping your body to burn more calories.

These can be very effective, but they are not a silver bullet. To make a large and lasting difference, they must be part of a wider programme that makes an improved diet and lots of exercise central features of your efforts.

3 Weapons In Your Weight Loss Fight

Our weight loss clinic in Glasgow will not just provide you with weight loss drugs, but support and guide you through a programme of diet and fitness that will do so much more to take the weight off. A better diet means fewer calories coming in, while exercise burns more of them off.

This means you are using three weapons in your fight against the fat, not one. Our guidance will help you learn how to choose healthier meal options, as well as cut out the unhealthy stuff with its saturated fats and high sugar content. Your fitness programme will also include gradually building up your physical activity.

In the case of exercise, that might sound very daunting. But nobody is expecting you to head up to the Highlands to climb lots of mountains or run a marathon. It may be that one day you will be super fit and do all those kinds of things, but it will begin with simple things like walking, gradually increasing the distance covered.

Walking can be beneficial in more ways than you might think. Not only does it burn off calories, but it can also help reduce cravings for unhealthy foods like chocolate, is good for mental health and can be a social activity. You may even find you can walk with someone who is on the same weight loss journey as you and provide mutual support.

Not only will a better diet and exercise combine with the weight loss drugs to help you lose weight, but it will also set you up for the ultimate challenge.

How To Stay Fit For Life

For many people, a weight loss programme can be an unfortunate case of winning the battle but losing the war. While they may lose weight in the short term, after they stop taking weight loss drugs, they start piling the pounds on again as their appetite returns. However, this is not inevitable.

There is some evidence that fat cells retain a ‘memory’ of their old state and act to try to restore it. This means that it would be normal for your weight to start increasing again. The answer to this is to use the new habits you should have learned for healthier eating and exercise during your weight loss programme and keep them going.

When your programme ends, you should have learned lots about nutrition, which you can apply at mealtimes every day, while your improved fitness means you can step up your exercise still further. Do this, and your victory over excess weight will not be temporary. Instead, you can be fitter for life.

There are a number of health conditions that can affect us as we age, but the connection between health, lifestyle, hormones and sex drive later in life is not always entirely understood, and because of this, it has taken until recently for the underlying conditions that lead to common age-related concerns to be truly treated.

One example of this is the menopause in women, for which the primary treatment to help manage symptoms is hormone replacement therapy (HRT), and how it relates to a similar collection of symptoms in men sometimes known as the “male menopause” or “manopause”.

To understand the role of testosterone replacement therapy in men experiencing menopause-like symptoms, it is important to demystify what it is, what it is not, and its underlying causes.

Is There A Male Menopause?

The simple answer is that there is not. The menopause in women is characterised by an often significant fall in hormone levels that causes periods to stop permanently. This change in hormones is what causes common symptoms such as hot flushes, brain fog, mood swings and lower sex drive.

Some men notice similar symptoms, such as lower energy, erectile dysfunction, lower sex drive, insomnia, fatigue, greater difficulties in concentrating, redistribution of fat around the body and mood swings, but this is not typically caused by a male-equivilent version of the menopause.

Testosterone levels do gradually fall, but it is at a relatively unnoticeable level and is not the root cause of any menopause-like symptoms.

This means that in many of these cases, TRT is unlikely to help with symptoms, although it can be prescribed for other reasons.

When Can TRT Help?

When it relates to male menopause symptoms, TRT is primarily used to treat a condition known as hypogonadism, a condition that is found in one in every 200 men on average and causes a significant drop in levels of testosterone.

There are a lot of different causes of hypogonadism, including physical injury, the side effects of chemotherapy for testicular cancer, alcohol abuse, previous steroid use and genetic conditions such as Klinefelter’s syndrome.

Hypogonadism that occurs around the time the menopause starts in women is typically known as late-onset hypogonadism, as earlier forms of the condition can cause issues such as delayed puberty.

A course of TRT can help with this condition, but unlike the menopause, it is not a typical stage of the ageing process, and the lack of testosterone can lead to some significant health complications if not treated.

What Causes Male Menopause Symptoms Other Than Hormones?

Many of the issues that are grouped together as a “male menopause” are typically caused by a range of lifestyle factors, physical health concerns, stress, anxiety and other issues that may affect your mental health.

Several of the symptoms of the male menopause are also found in erectile dysfunction, a condition that is not typically caused by a lack of testosterone but a mix of physical and mental factors.

As well as this, smoking and heart concerns can cause many of these symptoms, as can a sedentary life, an unbalanced diet or a lack of sleep.

If you are at all concerned, you should talk to your doctor or an expert in men’s health, as they can help to pinpoint your conditions and where TRT fits.

Whilst the summer holiday season is coming to an end, there are still millions of people travelling abroad, all of whom have different reasons for stepping onto the plane, different schedules and thus different healthcare needs when they step into their local travel clinic.

Many of the most vital immunisations are covered by the routine immunisation schedule or as part of the recommended list of travel vaccines, which protect against the most common travel infections when travelling to certain countries.

However, some people will have rather more unique needs than the typical traveller, either due to the specific region they are travelling to, the particular reason why they are going or if they have particular health needs due to age or a weakened immune system.

These types of journeys may require additional protection using speciality vaccines if they increase the risk of exposure to certain diseases.

With that in mind, here is a brief guide to speciality vaccinations, when they are needed and how to book an appointment.

What Are Speciality Vaccines?

Whilst all vaccines are designed to build up the body’s immune system to protect against particular infectious diseases, they are often categorised depending on when and who needs to be immunised.

There are routine vaccines, which are intended for everyone who can take them and are typically provided at an early age to prevent the risk of a wide range of dangerous childhood diseases.

Routine vaccines are provided because they can be a danger not only to an individual but can also risk spreading a disease and causing a more widespread outbreak.

As well as this, there are additional travel vaccines which are required or at least strongly recommended when travelling to certain countries or particular regions within said countries.

These help not only to keep you safe on holiday but also stop you from bringing diseases that could spread more widely if they are brought back to the UK.

A third set of vaccines consists of those that are offered by private travel clinics for very specific types of travellers who are at a greater risk of contracting certain diseases that most travellers to the same countries would not be.

Alternatively, some speciality vaccines are provided for domestic uses for people at a greater risk of certain diseases that they may not necessarily be protected against.

Who Needs A Speciality Vaccine?

There are several groups of travellers who may need speciality vaccines, and seeking advice from a travel clinic is the best way to know whether a more comprehensive set of inoculations is necessary.

The most common reason for speciality vaccines to be necessary for travellers is if they are healthcare or aid workers travelling to regions where there has been a particular outbreak, or comprehensive rapid medical assistance is not necessarily guaranteed.

In rural areas and particularly places affected by natural disasters, diseases that are typically more controlled can become more widespread due to infected water supplies and the difficulty in maintaining hygienic conditions in the midst of a disaster and its indirect secondary effects.

Similarly, if you work in a medical setting, you will inherently be in close contact with a wider range of diseases than the general population, and immunisation is one of several methods of protection you will need to use to avoid spreading disease.

If you are travelling to a region where there are more wild animals that are infected with animal-borne diseases, speciality vaccines become more necessary to minimise the risk of infection.

Alternatively, some speciality vaccines are either alternatives or additions to the traditional vaccination schedule.

This can be for either travel or domestic purposes and is typically for either immunocompromised people or people with an incomplete vaccination history.

For example, chickenpox is a condition common in children, where the most common way to provide lifelong immunity is by catching it and recovering from the illness.

However, if you never caught it as a child, a vaccine may be recommended for adults who might be in close proximity to someone with chickenpox or shingles, as the symptoms of the former are far more serious if you have not had it before.

How Do You Get Speciality Vaccines?

There are rare cases where some types of speciality vaccines are available through a GP if you are more vulnerable to the disease or are at risk of spreading it to someone more vulnerable, but the most common method is through a travel clinic.

They will discuss your medical history, travel plans and other requirements, and will schedule appointments well ahead of time to ensure that the vaccine is active when you need it.