Questions to Ask at a GLP-1 Consult

Start with whether you are a candidate

A GLP-1 consult is a medical visit, not a signup form. Semaglutide and tirzepatide are prescription medicines. At Skin Lab Med Spa in Falls Church, the first job is to decide whether either one belongs in your chart. Bring the questions that change that decision, not a request for a specific vial.

Ask what medical history would make the prescriber pause. Pancreatitis, certain thyroid histories, gallbladder disease, pregnancy, and plans to become pregnant are the topics people sometimes leave out because they want to get to the goal weight. Say them anyway. A physician-supervised program is supposed to turn people away when the medicine is the wrong tool.

Ask which medicine is even on the table for you, and why. Semaglutide and tirzepatide are not interchangeable labels for the same plan. The reason to choose one is your history, your other medicines, and how the clinician in front of you practices. An article cannot pick for you, and it should not quote a dose.

Learn more about GLP-1 Weight Loss at our Falls Church studio on West Broad Street.

Questions about the plan, not a number on a scale

Ask how the practice follows you after the first prescription. Weight loss medicine without check-ins is how side effects get ignored and how people quit in the first month. You want to know who you call, how often you are seen, and what happens if nausea, constipation, or fatigue gets in the way of normal life.

Ask what the program expects from food, protein, and strength work. These medicines can lower appetite. They do not choose what you eat, and they do not protect muscle if the rest of the week is an afterthought. If a program never mentions how you will eat or train, that is a useful answer even when it is a silence.

Ask how success will be judged besides the scale. Inches, how your clothes fit, lab work when it is relevant, and whether you can keep the plan going are all fair measures. A single promised percentage of body weight is not a plan. People respond differently. Anyone who guarantees a number before they know you is selling a headline.

Ask what happens if you need to stop. Travel, a surgery, a pregnancy, or a side effect you will not tolerate should have a path. Stopping is a medical conversation. So is restarting. Write that question down so it is not the thing you only think of later.

What to bring into the room

Bring an honest medicine list, including supplements and anything you were prescribed online. Interactions and duplicates are a common mess when people piece together care from three places. If you have used a GLP-1 before, say which one, about when, and why you stopped. You do not need the old box if you remember the name.

Bring the health conditions you are already treating: reflux, diabetes or prediabetes, kidney issues, and mood history if it is part of your care. Appetite medicines change how you eat and sometimes how other medicines feel. The consult is shorter and safer when that list is on the table at the start.

Bring your actual goal in plain language. Maybe it is a knee that hurts less, a lab value your doctor has been watching, or clothes that fit for work. Maybe it is a number. The more specific you are, the easier it is to say whether this program is the right route or whether another option at the studio, such as body sculpting for a stubborn area, is a different conversation entirely.

Do not arrive asking for a dose schedule you found in a forum. We will not match an internet chart. If the amount changes over time, that decision is made at the visit based on how you feel and what was prescribed. This guide will not fill that in, on purpose.

Where the visit happens

The consult is at 1140 W Broad Street, Falls Church, VA 22046. Dr. Patricia Ladisa-Gonzalez leads the practice. Patients also come from Arlington, McLean, Vienna, Tysons Corner, and Alexandria. We do not run a second clinic in those neighborhoods. The chart lives here.

Hours are Tuesday through Friday, 10:00 AM to 6:30 PM, and Saturday, 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM. The studio is closed Sunday and Monday. Call 703-488-7546 and say you want a GLP-1 consultation so the visit is booked as a consult, not squeezed into a different service.

Come ready to be told no, or to be told not yet. That is part of a real medical weight-loss visit. If the answer is yes, you should leave knowing what was prescribed, what to watch for, when you are seen again, and how to reach the studio if the first weeks are rough. Those four answers matter more than any before-and-after you have scrolled past.

If you are comparing programs around Northern Virginia, compare the follow-up and the person responsible for the prescription. A low-friction signup is not the same thing as supervision. Skin Lab's weight-loss page is the service overview. The consult is where your own questions get answered.

Questions patients ask