The Dr. Francavilla Show

What, exactly, is appetite? Our appetite is so much more complex than most people realize. There are actually seven components of appetite, and understanding each of them can give a much clearer idea of what causes us to eat, overeat, or eat the "wrong" foods. Hunger and cravings are two of the seven—likely the two we think of the most. Hunger is that physiological desire to eat; you mig...

Exercising can be so intimidating, whether it's at a studio where everyone else seems to be a pro yogi or it's at a gym where just figuring out how to turn on the machine seems tricky. But what if we could set any intimidation aside in the name of a longer, healthier life?! What if we separate weight loss and from exercise? And make it about moving in a way that feels right to YOU? And w...

Different bodies respond differently to the various weight-loss treatments, so it should not be considered a failure if a person's unique body is simply resistant to certain treatments. This is also why bariatric surgery shouldn't be considered a last-resort weight-loss solution.  In this newest podcast episode, I have an incredible and inspirational conversation with Karli Burridge, a P...

Weight is just one part of the whole health picture of a person. While weight can affect overall health and losing weight can improve that, there are other factors to consider when you are looking to become healthier. I have identified 5 factors to address BEFORE trying to lose weight so you set yourself up for success and make sure important conditions aren't overlooked when working to impro...

Unless you live a life that always goes as planned, listen up! Backup plans are a must when it comes to your health because no matter how well-prepped your lunches are for the week, you're bound to forget the lunch bag at home one day or find that your lettuce has wilted (already?!). So do these things get you off track and change the trajectory of your successful health plan? Not if you have...

In today's Dr. Francavilla Show podcast episode, I walk you through the pros and cons of each of the 6 most common diets that are brought up by patients at my clinic.  Data tells us the biggest predictor of success when picking a nutrition plan is if it's something you can stick with. As an obesity physician, I typically recommend my patients start with something like this, which I call...

It might surprise you to know that many people who come to me for weight loss don't actually need to lose weight! So how do you know if you (or your patients) do? In my newest podcast episode, I run through a few things to consider, because it is possible that stressing about weight is actually causing more harm than good for your health. I always invite my patients to share with me whether t...

In this episode, we are going to talk all about emotional eating. We will address ways you can recognize and handle it with the "Am I hungry" method. We will also talk about what emotional eating is and what it is not. When I have researched this topic before, studies estimate that about 70 to 80% of people emotionally eat. That means the vast majority of us emotionally eat at least from...

Today's episode is all about setting goals. If you are like most of my patients, you have set lots of goals in your life around health and weight. Maybe you haven't always been successful with them, maybe you haven't always accomplished them, maybe you haven't even started them. Some of that may be that you are choosing the wrong goal. It is the beginning of 2023 and many peopl...

Today is a very exciting day on the podcast because we have our first guest, Dr. Angela Fitch. She is an internal medicine and pediatric obesity medicine physician and president of the Obesity Medicine Association. She's the former co-director of the Mass General Weight Center in Boston and now she is the Chief Medical Officer for Known Well a new in-person and virtual primary care and obesit...

Today we are going to talk about how to take care of your health while you travel. I'm going to help you come up with a plan for before, during, and after your trips so that you can stay on plan and not undo all the work you have done with lifestyle changes just because you are traveling. If you are like my patients, one of the biggest challenges that can throw you off track is when you have...

In this episode, we are talking about exercise. Specifically, I have 14 ways to get yourself to exercise. I am convinced that if I could find the one way to get my patients to exercise, I would win the Nobel Prize! Exercise is so important for our health, yet the majority of Americans are not getting the recommended amount of exercise. Exercise is important to all of us regardless of our health be...

In this episode, we are going to talk about surviving the holidays and how to keep your health on track while going through the season. I’ll walk you through a few steps that you can take to prepare and get through this time of year without derailing your progress. We are also going to talk about some of the holiday challenges that my patients bring to me and what to do about those. Before we get...

In today's episode, we are going to be talking about weight maintenance. You may be thinking this episode is not for me, I have not reached my goal yet, I'm focused on losing weight right now. BUT, you are exactly who this episode is for because you need to know where you're going in order to get there and stay there successfully.  Sometimes knowing what you're getting into is...

In today's episode, we will talk about why it is so hard to lose weight and we'll start to touch on some of the things you can do. The whole podcast is about solutions to why it is so hard to lose weight but this episode is going to be a little bit more about the technical side because I want to get into a little bit of the science of why it is so hard. I hope, if nothing else, you leave...

Today we will be talking about one of my patients' most common challenges, which is overeating at night. Overeating at night is something we have all probably experienced. I know I certainly have. You know how it goes, you've eaten your dinner, in my case getting the kids to bed, and you're sitting down to get some work done or watch some tv, and the next thing you know, you have ea...

Welcome to the 1st episode of the Dr. Francavilla Show. I'm your host, Dr. Carolyn Francavilla, Board Certified in Family Medicine and a diplomate of the American Board of Obesity Medicine. I've been helping patients lose weight to treat and prevent medical problems for the last 10 years, and I'm taking what I've learned from them to you.  In this podcast, you will learn the sc...