Weight Management - Weight Loss
Mount Sinai endocrinologists are dedicated to helping you lose weight and keep it off. Through diet and lifestyle modification, weight-loss medications as necessary and referrals for weight-loss/bariatric surgery, if appropriate, our individualized weight-loss plans give you the greatest chance of success. With your safety and support needs in mind, our approach is to help keep you from developing diabetes and other complications associated with being overweight.
The Mount Sinai Hospital Weight and Metabolism Management Program
The Mount Sinai Weight and Metabolism Management Program, based at The Mount Sinai Hospital, provides a comprehensive approach to the management of obesity and associated complications. Medical Director Reshmi Srinath, MD, Assistant Professor in the endocrine division, has training and extensive expertise in medical weight management. As a former nationally ranked Division I tennis player, Dr. Srinath has had an interest in healthy eating, lifestyle, and weight management since childhood.
Our team consists of highly trained endocrinologists, nurse practitioners, nutritionists, exercise physiologists, and bariatric surgeons. Our personalized approach helps you identify internal and external factors that may be contributing to weight gain so we can prevent or reduce the health complications of obesity.
Steps in your personalized evaluation may include:
- Initial comprehensive evaluation by an endocrinologist to assess patterns of weight gain, risk factors, and complications. This may include laboratory assessment.
- Measurement of your body’s ability to burn calories (resting metabolic rate) and referral for body composition testing and exercise testing as indicated.
- Optimization of chronic medications to avoid medications that cause weight gain.
- Consultation with a nutritionist to review eating habits and calorie intake and develop a personalized meal plan.
- Individual or group support meetings with experts in diet and exercise.
- Referral for endoscopic or surgical management of weight as indicated.
- Consultation with cardiology, sleep medicine.
For Referring Physicians
If you would like to refer a patient to the Mount Sinai Weight and Metabolism Management Program, please call our office at 212-241-3422 and our staff will arrange for a prompt appointment. Our physicians are committed to fitting in new patients with two weeks.
Please provide your office information and additional contact information. We also ask that you send us any medical records, including lab results (including prior endocrine testing).
You can fax your records to our practice at 212-423-0508. We approach cases in a collaborative manner and would be happy to work with you in providing ongoing care for your patient.
For Self-Referring Patients
If you want to consult about weight or obesity problems and would like a second opinion from one of our expert physicians, you can call our office at 212-241-3422 to arrange an appointment with our care team. Prior to your appointment, we ask that you send us a copy of any lab results you may have. You can fax this information to 212-423-0508.
Our Research
Our physician-scientists are dedicated to finding advancements in patient care and will share any appropriate clinical trials at your visit.
Our Team
Our highly trained and experienced health care team is here to help.
Reshmi Srinath, MD
Barrie Weinstein, MD
Briana Adler, RN
The Comprehensive Weight Management Program
The Comprehensive Weight Management Program at Mount Sinai Downtown Union Square is designed to evaluate and treat adult obesity. Our team will create a tailored program to meet your individual needs.
Since obesity is a complex medical condition, our team is comprised of skilled physicians, surgeons, registered dietitians, nurse practitioners, and nurses who support individual needs and assist in developing personalized plans. Our program includes specialists in internal medicine, endocrinology, gastroenterology, and hepatology, pulmonary/sleep, cardiology, and bariatric surgery, all conveniently located at Mount Sinai Downtown Union Square. Our clinical coordinators will help you navigate through the process.
We also provide ongoing support and guidance to help you achieve and sustain a healthier weight and lifestyle whether through non-surgical or surgical methods. To make an appointment with any of our specialists, please contact us at 212-870-8100.
Mount Sinai St. Luke’s Metabolic, Body Composition, and Sports Performance Clinic
At Mount Sinai St. Luke’s, our weight-loss program includes a 24–hour Metabolic Profile and Assessment in the Metabolic Chamber. Our metabolic chamber enables us to do a comprehensive assessment of your metabolic and fuel utilization profile for 24 hours. We look at how much energy you burn for various type of activities including sleep, rest, exercise, working, and eating. The chamber is now available for both research and consumer use and provides vital information that can be used to create a specific and personalized program for weight loss, athletic performance, or general health.
Body Composition Assessments with the Bod Pod
Your body composition profile can affect many facets of your health and fitness from disease risk to physical function and athletic performance. For example, having too much (or too little) body fat is linked to a number of metabolic disorders including obesity and diabetes and can also impair physical function and sports performance. Therefore, assessing the amount of fat and fat-free mass (also called lean body mass or muscle mass) is important for both health and sports. Body composition analysis with the Bod Pod provides simple, accurate and useful information for evaluating health status, risk of diseases, and monitoring your progress in a weight loss or exercise program.
Resting Metabolic Rate Assessments
Your metabolism is based on your age, gender, genetics, fitness level, diet, and body composition. When we determine your resting metabolic rate assessment, it tells us about your daily resting and daily energy requirement, fat and carbohydrate metabolism, and metabolic rate. This information helps us assess your health status (e.g., high vs. low metabolism, fuel oxidation profile), and enables us to design a personalized exercise and nutrition program that will help you with weight management and athletic performance. Having your resting metabolic rate also helps us to see how well you do in the dietary and/or exercise program, and make any adjustments you may need. At our metabolic clinic, we can provide a resting metabolic rate assessment with a metabolic cart and a metabolic chamber. Both methods provide highly accurate results.
Exercise and VO2 Max Testing
We often do exercise testing to determine your cardiorespiratory fitness level, athletic ability, exercise efficiency, exercise tolerance, energy expenditure, metabolic rate, and fat and carbohydrate usage. It can tell us how well your heart, lung, and blood deliver oxygen to your working muscles and how your muscles use that oxygen for physical work. If you have a low fitness level, you may be at higher risk for a number of chronic diseases such as diabetes, obesity, and heart disease. A robust fitness level means a high degree of aerobic capacity, which makes it easier to do everyday activities such as walking, stair climbing, and carrying groceries. Also, knowing your fitness level and fuel oxidation profile (fat and carbohydrate metabolism) can help us design a specific and personalized exercise and weight management program.
For more information or to book an appointment, contact Avigdor “Dori” Arad at 212-523-3876 or email avigdor.arad@mountsinai.org
For medical consultations regarding weight loss, please call 212-523-8572 to make an appointment with a Mount Sinai St. Luke’s endocrinologist.
Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Program
The Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Program at Mount Sinai is an innovative, team-based program designed to treat obesity and the numerous health problems that are associated with it, such as type 2 diabetes. Research suggests that both diabetes and obesity may be related to diseases of the gastrointestinal system. Surgical modification of the stomach and intestines, such as bariatric surgery, is an additional option in the effort to fight obesity and type 2 diabetes.
Our surgical program is coordinated by the Garlock Division of General Surgery: General, Endocrine, and Metabolic Surgery and uses a tightly integrated group of advanced laparoscopic and minimally invasive endocrine surgeons, working in conjunction with internal medicine specialists, endocrinologists, cardiologists, diabetologists, psychiatrists, nurse practitioners, and nutritionists. This multidisciplinary team provides a broad spectrum of both traditional and advanced procedures to treat diabetes and obesity.
At the Mount Sinai Endoscopy Center at The Mount Sinai Hospital, we utilize many advanced procedures to help our obese patients.
In the last few years, several endoscopic approaches for the treatment of obesity have been approved, and these offer important options for patients who want help in losing weight and keeping it off. Endoscopic procedures can be considered a middle ground between medications and surgery because they achieve better weight loss outcomes than medications alone, and without the side effects seen with medications, but they are less invasive than surgical options.
Compared to surgical procedures, endoscopic procedures offer an easier recovery, less discomfort, no abdominal scars, and a faster return to normal daily activities. Many endoscopic treatments are also reversible. Endoscopic options are also available to some people with lower body mass index who would not otherwise qualify for bariatric surgery, but who need help losing weight. As a result, these approaches allow our program to offer solutions to help a much greater number of people struggling with obesity.
Endoscopic approaches are not meant to replace a healthy diet, exercise, and lifestyle. These are fundamentals of living a healthy life and maintaining a healthy weight in the long run. Endoscopic treatments may serve as a facilitator to help with initial weight loss and make it easier to continue forward with a healthier way of life.
Intragastric Balloon
The intragastric balloon is a weight-loss procedure in which a silicone balloon is placed in the stomach by endoscopy. Once in the stomach, the balloon is inflated with saline. By taking up space in the stomach, the balloon limits how much one can eat, leading to smaller and less frequent meals.
This procedure is an option if one is overweight or obese, and diet and exercise haven't worked.
The intragastric balloon is removed endoscopically after six months. Like other weight-loss procedures, an intragastric balloon requires commitment to a healthier lifestyle. Permanent, healthy dietary changes are needed along with regular exercise to help ensure the long-term success of the intragastric balloon procedure.
Endoscopic Sleeve Gastroplasty
Endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty is a weight-loss procedure that reduces stomach size using an endoscopic suturing device without the need for surgery. Reducing the size of the stomach leads to significant weight loss by limiting how much one can eat due to an earlier feeling of fullness. The procedure is minimally invasive, performed with an endoscopy through the mouth, with no external incisions.
This procedure is designed for patient who are overweight (body mass index of 30 or more) for which diet and exercise haven't worked. The procedure can be performed on patients who are not able to undergo bariatric surgery. Patients who may not be surgical candidates can include: 1) Those with a body mass index (BMI) of less than 40 without comorbidities, 2) Those with a BMI of 30-35 with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, or sleep apnea, 3) Those who have large amounts of abdominal scarring from injuries or previous procedures.
Like other weight-loss procedures, endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty requires commitment to a healthier lifestyle. Permanent, healthy dietary changes are needed along with regular exercise to help ensure the long-term success of the endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty.
For more information about these procedures, please call the Mount Sinai Endoscopy Center at 212-241-6277.