About Us

A Better Way Health Center is a preventive medicine program in the Southdale Medical Center in Edina, Minnesota. We focus on weight control through the development of a permanent healthy diet and exercise habits, so that weight loss is not only achieved, but also maintained. As an aid to this process, most of our patients also use the medication, phentermine. Over the past three years, we have had 128,000 office visits and have helped over 1,600 patients achieve healthier weights through our medical weight loss program. When you are looking for an affordable program to achieve and maintain a healthy weight without hunger, A Better Way Health Center is the right choice.

What Type of Weight Loss Program is A Better Way?

A Better Way program can be categorized as an individualized behavior-modification program, with a focus on dietary education and one-on-one coaching and problem solving. Each participant meets individually with a registered dietician and a physician at every office visit, who will go through that participant’s diet and weight loss history, reinforcing areas of progress and making specific suggestions for further improvement. While we do work with our participants to help them identify and alter their responses to the emotional and environmental triggers that lead to inappropriate eating, we do not practice psychotherapy or attempt to delve deeply into our participant’s private lives. Of the major commercial weight loss programs, our program is most similar to that of Weight-Watchers, emphasizing a sound diet, education, self-monitoring and the use of real foods, but without the public weighing and mandatory group discussions.

Nutritionist inspecting a woman's waist using a measuring tape to prescribe a weight loss diet. Obesity, unhealthy weight

How Does the Program Work?

The program’s emphasis is based on research of individuals who have been able to not only lose a substantial amount of weight but are successfully keeping that weight off. The findings of this research indicate that certain basic habits appear to be highly correlated with long-term success at weight control. Our program focuses on the development of these habits in each of our patients, tailoring the specific behaviors to the individual in order to optimize his or her long-term weight control.

How Much Does it Cost?

Program cost is ninety dollars per month, which includes the monthly visit with the physician and Registered Dietician, and a four-week supply of the medication, phentermine. Payment is on a visit-to-visit basis, with no contracts to sign or hidden fees. We do not sell foods or ask you to buy other products. Program costs are deductible as medical expenses or are reimbursable by employer-sponsored flexible payment plans or medical savings accounts (cafeteria plans).

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What is a Typical Office Visit Like?

A typical office visit takes about thirty minutes. At each visit, a participant first checks in with the front desk and then fills out a brief, easy-to-use computerized questionnaire, gathering information on each participant’s current diet, physical activity level, and response to the medication, phentermine, along with questions into their general physical health. Next, each participant meets privately with our registered dietician, who obtains the weight and blood pressure, and then reviews with them their diet and progress-to-date, usually giving several diet tips on what to work on over the upcoming month. Each participant then meets the physician, who also reviews the diet and physical activity, and explores in detail how phentermine is working for that individual, making any adjustment in dosage or pill type that may be warranted. The prescription is then filled, the following appointment is scheduled and the patient makes a payment on their way out at the front desk.

Overweight Woman Eating Healthy Meal Sitting On Sofa

How Often Do I Come in for Appointments?

Our experience has been that when participants are in the weight loss phase, they should come in at least monthly in order to stay on track and make good progress, and so we very strongly encourage participants to go no more than four weeks out between appointments, although we are not totally inflexible, and most of our participants do come on a monthly basis. A good percentage of our patients prefer more frequent follow-up appointments, in order to speak with our staff and for the accountability, and for them we prorate the program cost accordingly (e.g. $50 for two weeks, $70 for three weeks).

Who is the Program For?

Our physician evaluates each applicant to the program individually based on that individual’s weight gain history, medical history, physical exam and benefits to be obtained from any weight loss. However, the average participant in the program is about 50-70 pounds above the upper limit of what is considered the healthy range (BMI of 19-25) for their height, and has tried several or other weight loss programs with poor results. About half have one or more weight-related health conditions, such as diabetes or high blood pressure.

man's hand holding excessive belly fat, overweight concept

When Can I Get an Initial Appointment?

We are usually booked out about a week to two in advance, but occasionally we can fit new participants in as early as the next day. Appointments can be made or questions answered by calling our office at 952-285-8000.

Phentermine

What is Phentermine?

Phentermine is a prescription medication approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of obesity. It is a sympathomimetic amine (stimulant class of appetite suppressant) legally prescribed as a weight loss aid for those who are clinically overweight or obese and who are participating in a professional physician-supervised program of weight control.

Who Should Consider Phentermine?

Phentermine should be considered by those who are clinically obese (BMI >= 30; nearly one-third of the U.S. adult population) or who are overweight (BMI >= 27) with two or more obesity-related health risk factors, such heart disease, colon, breast, endometrial and prostate cancers, diabetes, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, sleep apnea, gall bladder disease, and osteoarthritis.When should someone consider phentermine? The use of phentermine should be considered after multiple attempts at losing weight without a medication aid (either through a formal program and/or self-dieting) have proven ineffective. Only after consultation with a physician, including a medical history and a physical exam, should anyone embark on using phentermine as a weight loss aid.
It should be understood by both the physician and the patient that phentermine will help to produce permanent weight loss only if combined with a program of dietary modification and increased physical activity. This program should ideally provide both professional individualized instruction (i.e., meeting with a Registered Dietitian, as well as the physician) and follow-up appointments at reasonable intervals (at least monthly).

How Does Phentermine Work?

Phentermine appears to help with weight loss efforts in three ways:
Phentermine’s primary effect is to reduce or eliminate the sensations of hunger and specific food cravings, so that dieters are able to follow a healthy diet without feeling starved or deprived. Phentermine also works by creating the sensations of satiety (feeling full) at much lower levels of food intake. This helps dieters to not only eat less, but also to learn to recognize and adapt to smaller portion sizes. Phentermine also produces a modest increase in the metabolism and a mild perception of increased energy, so that those taking it are more physically active and burn more calories through the day.

Why Use a Medication to Help with Weight Loss?

Obesity is at epidemic proportions in the U.S., and is now the leading cause of premature morbidity and mortality in the United States. The obese at are dramatically increased risk of coronary heart disease, stroke, colon, breast, endometrial and prostate cancers, diabetes, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, sleep apnea, gall bladder disease, osteoarthritis, and many other diseases. As research into the causes of obesity has progressed, it has come to be seen more as a chronic disease with both biological and behavioral underpinnings, similar to diabetes or hypertension,

While the ideal for many chronic diseases, including diabetes, hypertension, or obesity, would be for their control without medication, it many cases this goal cannot be achieved, and the alternatives become to add a medication as an aid, or else let the disease progress inadequately controlled. Just as medications have been developed and are now being routinely used to treat conditions such as depression or smoking, which were once also thought due to poor behavior or moral failings, so too is obesity being recognized as a health condition which in many cases is poorly controllable through behavior alone, and which can benefit from treatment with a medication in combination with behavioral change.