Louisville Center for Weight Loss

Louisville Center for Weight Loss

Louisville Center for Weight Loss has been helping patients lose weight for 30 years. Dr. Stege is board certified in bariatric medicine and family practice.
For your convenience LCWL is a walk-in facility where you never need an appointment. Patients are seen on a first come, first serve basis. New patient forms are available online at www.drstege.com . If you are a new patient and do not have access to the internet to print off the paper work, we would appreciate it if you arrive an hour and a half before we go to lunch or close for the day... New patients with your paper work filled out, we ask you to arrive an hour before lunch or close for the day.
A new patient visit is $169.90 but the special this month is $99.95. Included in this price is an EKG (echocardiogram), urinalysis, blood work and your consultation with the doctor. We will run a full panel, including a CBC, chemistry, lipid and thyroid profiles... These test your liver, kidneys and thyroid, which controls your metabolism... If anything comes back abnormal we will call you with the results. If you do not hear from us then everything came back fine and Dr. Stege will go over your results with you on your next visit and present you with a copy. Within this appointment we will determine your BMI (body mass index), based on your height and weight. If you qualify by the state and federal guidelines and have no medical contraindications, then you will receive a prescription for an appetite suppressant. We have 3 different suppressants that we can rotate, Phentermine being the most popular. The DEA regulates these appetite suppressants and uses a BMI chart of 27 and 25. In order to qualify you must have a BMI higher than a 27 or 25 depending on your personal and family medical history. If you do not have a BMI higher than either one of those don’t worry because we have other options for you to help you reach your ideal goal weight. Follow up visits go a lot faster and cost only $79.95. We like to see you back once a month until you reach your goal weight. These visits will consist of a weigh-in, blood pressure and pulse reading along with a consultation with Dr. Stege. As long as you are doing well with the medicine that he prescribed you the month before he will refill it and you will be on your way. If you do not lose any weight or gain with-in that month your prescription will be changed to a different suppressant in case you have become immune. If you need to because of vacation you can come back up to a week early for follow-up.
In addition to the appetite suppressants we have a medication Topiramate (brand name Topamax). This medication is used to treat migraines, epilepsy and other medical problems. The side effects are weight loss, up to 20 pounds without eating less or exercising more. It makes sweets taste horrible, especially sodas. . If you are a sweet eater then this could be for you. There is a pregnancy warning with the Topamax so females have to be on some method of birth control, whether it be a hysterectomy, condoms, pills, IUD, the shot, or your spouse having a vasectomy. If you happen to get pregnant while taking the Topamax it can increase the risk of birth defects, such as cleft lip or palate. Topamax works so well with phentermine that Qsymia, a combination pill containing both was released on 9/18/12. Belviq is soon to be release and is essentially a new safe "Phen-Fen". Although Dr. Stege never prescribed "Phen-Fen" because he knew it was dangerous, most of our patients who took it loved it and lost 10-20 pounds a month and were not hungry at all. They say they had to force themselves to eat, and that looking at even their favorite foods would make then nauseous, as if they were sick.
Another way to boost your weight loss is to take the HCG hormone. HCG stands for Human Chorionic Gonadotropin. This is the pregnancy hormone that is tested on a pregnancy test. Dr. Simeons introduced HCG to the world almost 50 years ago. He wrote a book called Pounds and Inches, A New Approach to Obesity. It has become very popular throughout the years. In his book he recommends a 500 calorie diet; we DO NOT recommend this. It is unsafe and is not enough calorie intake. Instead we recommend a 1200 calorie diet. We recommend you eat the same foods you normally eat but smaller portions. If we tell you not to eat certain things you will automatically crave those things. We want to teach you portion control, and our whole goal is to get you to a healthy weight for you and teach you ways to maintain that weight. We want every patient to succeed and completely graduate you from the program. HCG comes in two different forms. We offer it in an injection and oral tablet form. The injections are $49.95 for a 30 day supply and you will administer the injections once a day to yourself at home. We will teach you how to administer the injections in the office the day you purchase them. They are a subcutaneous injection that you can put in the arm or leg. It does have to be refrigerated. The HCG tablets are a one a day tablet that goes under the tongue. They are $69.95 for a 30 day supply and do not have to be measured or refrigerated. The tablets have 3 times the amount of HCG in them to be sure enough is absorbed into the body. We have done a one month study on the two together while taking the Phentermine with it and we had better results with the tablets. HCG works for most people but a few have reported that they did not like it or that it didn’t work for them. Other patients love it and say they get the feeling of euphoria (feeling better) while on it. About half of our women patients report this phenomena of being happier than they have ever been in their lives while pregnant. Few people have reported negative side effects from taking it.
LCWL also offers B-12 and Lipo- B-12 shots. B-12 is a vitamin that many of our patients report give them extra energy and help them lose weight... The Lipo-B12 is the regular B-12 with added B-5, B-6, a long acting B-12, Choline, Isositol, and Methionine, which are involved in fat metabolism. Lipo stand for lipotrophic, which means fat burner. Get these shots on your first visit for a special discounted rate. The day of your initial visit the regular B-12 is free or you can pay $5 for a Lipo-B-12 shot. Any appointment after they will be $15 for B-12 and $20 for Lipo-B-12. You can come in once a week to get a shot without seeing the doctor or you can just get them once a month with your follow-up visits.
If you have any questions or need more information about anything fill free to call us and we will be happy to answer any questions you have. Hope to see you soon!