Patient resting in the exercise therapy area beside a vibration platform at Padda Institute, St. Louis

Medical weight loss · St. Louis

Medical Weight Loss

Medical weight loss here is a physician-led program, not a store-bought diet. It uses health coaching, food counseling, medicine when it fits, lifestyle medicine and exercise therapy. It is built on your own blood markers for metabolism and inflammation. For many patients, weight and pain are the same problem. Fill out the form and we will contact you.

Prefer not to fill in a form?

Call (314) 481-5000Text (314) 886-5902

Same-day and emergency appointments are available.

How are weight and chronic pain connected?

For many of our patients, weight and pain are not two separate problems. Body fat is not just stored fuel. It is active tissue that pumps out inflammation, and it piles load onto the very joints that already hurt. Treat one and ignore the other, and some patients stall.

This program is led by Dr. Gurpreet Singh Padda, MD, MBA, MHP, who is board certified in Obesity Medicine as well as Anesthesiology, Pain Medicine, Interventional Pain Management and Addiction Medicine. It is a medical program built on your own blood markers for metabolism and inflammation — not a store-bought diet.

Diagnostic ultrasound cart and exam table at Padda Institute, St. Louis

What does a medical weight loss program include?

  • Health coaching — steady, ongoing check-ins that keep you on track, not a single visit.
  • Nutritional counseling — built around whole food and enough protein. It cuts the refined carbohydrate and industrial seed oils that drive inflammation.
  • Medication when it fits your case. A doctor prescribes and watches it as part of the program, never on its own.
  • Lifestyle medicine — sleep, your body clock and the daily habits that decide whether any of this sticks. See our lifestyle medicine page.
  • Exercise therapy — step-by-step movement that works around the physical problem instead of making it worse.

What happens at your first medical weight loss visit?

A physician-led evaluation that looks at your whole metabolic picture, not just the scale. We check blood markers for metabolism and inflammation, sleep, food and your current medicines. We also find the physical sources of pain that limit how you move. Then we build a plan and decide together which of the five parts you really need.

Do not start, stop, or change any medication without consulting your physician. Individual results vary.

Counseling and group therapy room at Padda Institute, St. Louis

Does medical weight loss help joint pain and diabetes?

Weight, load and joint pain

Messier and colleagues reported in JAMA in 2022 on adults with knee osteoarthritis and overweight or obesity. Diet and exercise together cut knee pain more than control did. Their earlier IDEA trial, also in JAMA, showed intensive diet and exercise lowered the load on the knee joint and the markers of inflammation.

Metabolic health

The DiRECT trial, published in The Lancet, tested a weight program run by family doctors. It put type 2 diabetes into remission in a large share of the people in it, and the results held at two years. Weight is a lever on metabolic disease, and metabolic disease is a lever on pain.

What This Is Not

  • Not a cosmetic program. The goal is function, metabolic health and pain.
  • Not a guarantee. We do not publish success rates, and individual results vary.
  • Not a stand-in for treating the physical problem — see interventional pain management.
  • Not a pill on its own. Medicine without coaching, food and movement is the approach that has already failed most people who come to us.

Related Reading

Wide view of the interventional procedure suite with C-arm fluoroscopy during a procedure at Padda Institute, St. Louis

Treat the Metabolic Driver, Not Just the Symptom

Serving St. Louis, St. Louis County and St. Charles, with patients from across Missouri and Illinois. Call or text us to talk about whether this fits your plan.

Call Us : 314-481-5000

What Our Patients Say

Individual results vary. These are unpaid patient testimonials shared with permission and are not a guarantee of outcome. See all patient stories.

Medical Weight Loss: Frequently Asked Questions

Because in many patients the two problems are the same problem. Extra body fat is active tissue that pumps out inflammation. It also adds load to the joints that carry your weight. A randomized trial published in JAMA in 2022 looked at adults with osteoarthritis and overweight or obesity. Diet and exercise together cut knee pain more than control did. Treat the load and the inflammation, and you treat the source of the pain. Individual results vary.

Five parts, used together and fitted to you: health coaching; food counseling; prescription medicine when it fits; lifestyle medicine; and exercise therapy. It is physician-led, not a store-bought diet plan. It is built around your own metabolic markers, not a one-size-fits-all template.

Medicine is one of the tools we use. A doctor prescribes and watches it as part of the full program, never on its own. Whether you need medicine, and which one, is a medical choice made at your evaluation. Do not start, stop, or change any medication without consulting your physician.

For patients on long-term opioid therapy, taking part in the metabolic and food work is part of the treatment agreement. It is not an optional extra. It is what lets the medicine come down safely. If you are already our patient, ask at your next visit and we will add it to your plan.

No, and we will not promise that. Weight is one cause among several, and physical problems still need physical treatment. What the evidence backs is real gains in pain and function for many patients, along with better metabolic health. Individual results vary.

Yes. The program is led by Dr. Gurpreet Singh Padda, MD, MBA, MHP, who is board certified in Obesity Medicine as well as Anesthesiology, Pain Medicine, Interventional Pain Management and Addiction Medicine. A doctor prescribes and watches any weight-loss medicine as part of the full program. Whether you need it is decided at your evaluation.

That is what the first evaluation is for. We look past the scale. We check your blood markers for metabolism and inflammation, your sleep, your food and your current medicines. We also find the physical sources of pain that keep you from moving. Weight gain on long-term opioids, for example, is body chemistry, not a lack of willpower.

No. It is a physician-led medical program, not a store-bought diet and not a cosmetic one. The goal is function, metabolic health and less pain. Food is built around whole food and enough protein. It cuts the refined carbohydrate and industrial seed oils that drive inflammation. Coaching, sleep, exercise therapy and medicine, when it fits, round it out.

No. Medicine here is never a pill on its own. Medicine without coaching, food and movement is the approach that has already failed most people who come to us. When medicine fits your case, it is one of five tools used together, and the plan is fitted to you. Individual results vary.

Padda Institute Center for Interventional Pain Management, 4477 Woodson Rd, Suite 100, St. Louis, MO 63134, with a second location at 12174 Natural Bridge Rd, St. Louis, MO 63044. Book at painmd.tv/appointment/, call (314) 481-5000 or text (314) 886-5902.

References

  • Messier SP, Beavers DP, Queen K, et al. Effect of diet and exercise on knee pain in patients with osteoarthritis and overweight or obesity: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA. 2022;328(22):2242–2251. PMID 36511925.
  • Messier SP, Mihalko SL, Legault C, et al. Effects of intensive diet and exercise on knee joint loads, inflammation, and clinical outcomes among overweight and obese adults with knee osteoarthritis: the IDEA randomized clinical trial. JAMA. 2013;310(12):1263–1273. PMID 24065013.
  • Lean ME, Leslie WS, Barnes AC, et al. Primary care-led weight management for remission of type 2 diabetes (DiRECT): an open-label, cluster-randomised trial. Lancet. 2018;391(10120):541–551. PMID 29221645.
  • Lean MEJ, Leslie WS, Barnes AC, et al. Durability of a primary care-led weight-management intervention for remission of type 2 diabetes: 2-year results of the DiRECT open-label, cluster-randomised trial. Lancet Diabetes Endocrinol. 2019;7(5):344–355. PMID 30852132.

Send A Message

For questions and concerns, please fill out the form below.

Prefer not to fill in a form?

Call (314) 481-5000Text (314) 886-5902

Same-day and emergency appointments are available.

Part of our complete guide to Interventional Pain Management in St. Louis.