Kat Dietrich was a palliative care doctor. During the pandemic, she developed an awareness that people with overweight and obesity were disproportionately affected by Covid.
“For so many months, I saw too many patients who had so much life yet to live–instead, dying to this disease.
I came to the realization that we need to get ahead of this. As a primary care doctor, knew the standard 15-minute wellness exam was just not sufficient to address lifestyle and obesity issues.”
Dr. Dietrich pivoted and began imagining a weight management program which would be different from traditional weight loss centers. Instead, her concept would be physician-led, taking a patient’s hormone levels, other wellness factors and lifestyle into consideration.
She opened Discreet Reductions in spring of 2022, where they take a comprehensive approach and promote seven dimensions of heath:
- Nutrition
- Sleep
- Physical Activity
- Job/Career Fulfillment
- Relationships
- Financial Stability
- Spiritual Peace
“Most diet centers are focused on calories in and calories out. We’ve found that this is not true anymore. We have to look at this from a medical perspective. Hormones are at play,” she says.
“We know there is often a rebound when people use prepackaged foods and prescriptive meals with low calorie diets,” Kat continues.
Why the rebound? People using the diet center ideology are limited to a very low calorie diet, so they burn more calories than they consume. But the body is smart and it dials down its metabolism as a person loses weight.
Discreet Reduction tailors their weight loss program to each individual, taking lifestyle and medical factors all into consideration. They use nutrient sequencing, timing meals and healthy behaviors to make a lasting difference in a person’s life.
Trails are an important part of providing people with the means to live a healthy life. Having places to walk, run, or ride plays into to at least five of the seven dimensions of health: people have a better sense of peace and wellbeing when they are in nature and getting even moderate exercise, which leads to improved sleep. Having a trail closeby lowers the barriers to getting outside and choosing activity over snacking (improving nutrition). And pending time walking or exercising with another person promotes relationships.
We are grateful to Kat Dietrich and Discreet Reductions for their efforts in making life better for people in our community: through what they do at their business and through their corporate membership to Billings TrailNet.
To get started, see them at https://www.discreetreductions.com.