Obesity is a complex disease influenced by physiological drivers, not merely a lack of willpower. WVU Medicine and Vandalia Health offer comprehensive weight management programs designed to address the multifaceted nature of weight loss and provide individuals with the tools and support they need to achieve lasting results. These programs go beyond simple diets, offering medical and surgical options, lifestyle guidance, and continuous support.
Comprehensive Weight Management Programs
The Medical Weight Management Clinic at WVU Medicine offers a non-surgical program providing each patient with a team of highly trained healthcare professionals specializing in safe and healthy weight management. Vandalia Health Weight Loss Center also offers more than diets; their providers are experts in a variety of weight loss methods, medical or surgical.
Individualized Approach
Recognizing that every person’s weight management journey is different, the WVU Medicine program is individualized to help patients achieve the results they’ve been looking for. An individualized nutrition and daily living plan that you will be able to maintain for life will be created. During the program, you’ll learn personal lifestyle skills, such as self-monitoring of food intake, movement, sleep, and stress.
The Medical Weight Management Clinic is open to adults of all fitness levels and various states of health. The Vandalia Health Weight Loss Center is there for you now, and as long as you need them throughout your weight loss journey.
Respectful and Supportive Environment
Weight management is hard, so the last thing you need is to worry about being judged. You can feel comfortable knowing that our staff treat people of all sizes with respect.
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Program Components and Services
WVU Medicine offers a variety of services and support groups to help you live a healthier lifestyle, manage your weight, and improve your chronic medical conditions.
Orientation and Welcome Handbook
All Medical Weight Management participants must attend a program orientation session. Be on the lookout in the MyWVUChart app for a questionnaire that must be completed prior to being scheduled in the clinic. Review the patient welcome handbook. The patient welcome handbook is a comprehensive guide to the Medical Weight Management program.
Eat Well, Live Well Group Program
The Eat Well, Live Well group program is an eight-week weight management and health promotion course designed to help our patients improve their wellness. Based on the latest nutrition science, participants are provided weekly ideas on what lifestyle changes would best benefit them. Through interactions with the dietitians and the other group members, small, weekly goals are set and often achieved. Eat Well, Live Well classes occur every Monday and Tuesday from 4:30 - 5:30 pm via MyChart. Please join us in our next session and receive your road map to success.
Monthly Support Group
WVU Medicine offers a monthly support group for those who have completed the eight-week Eat Well, Live Well series. This group offers encouragement, shares success stories, and provides tips to help empower one another on their journey. Judy Siebart will lead a monthly support group to review the lessons learned in the Eat Well, Live Well group visits. Join the support group virtually.
Bariatric Surgery Support Group
Have you had bariatric surgery? Do you feel like you need extra guidance and understanding from your peers? Attend our free, monthly support group facilitated by a licensed healthcare professional. Pre-surgery and post-surgery patients discuss concerns, successes, and learn strategies to keep off the weight.
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Finding Wellness Program
After weight-loss surgery, it can be challenging to stay focused on your weight-loss goals. Finding Wellness is a new, free program for people who are ready to make healthy lifestyle changes to improve their personal health.
Diabetes Education Center
The WVU Medicine Diabetes Education Center offers services for people with diabetes or who are at risk for developing diabetes.
Vandalia Health Weight Loss Center
When your weight interferes with your quality of life and you’re ready to make a change, see the experts at Vandalia Health. The Vandalia Health Weight Loss Center is nationally accredited for adult and adolescent bariatric surgery and named a Blue Distinction Center+ for Bariatric Surgery designated by Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield West Virginia.
Benefits of Weight Loss
Weight loss isn’t just about losing pounds and inches. It’s also about the possibility of freeing yourself from the life-threatening health risks that accompany being overweight, including diabetes, high blood pressure, joint damage, sleep apnea and depression.
Success Story
Beth Atkins, RN, had the sleeve gastrectomy surgery in 2013 and has maintained a 115 to 120 pound weight loss since."Growing up, I was always overweight. When I started nursing school, my weight significantly increased, which led to severe back problems. After graduating from nursing school and getting married, my weight continued to increase. After years of going to a chiropractor to get relief from my back pain, I realized that my weight was the biggest problem and it needed to be gone! I had done all of the ‘fad’ diets with some success, but I would always regain the weight…and then some. So after years of researching and contemplating weight loss surgery, I finally decided to do it.
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The Importance of Exercise
Exercise is an important part of weight loss, but you should check with your doctor before starting any new physical activity.
Consulting Your Doctor
First check with your doctor before starting any physical activity, especially if you:
- Are over 35
- Have been inactive for a long period of time
- Have a history of smoking
- Have any past/current medical condition
- Experience unusual chest pain, pain in your left or mid-chest area, left neck, shoulder, or arm during or just after exercise
- Experience shortness of breath
- Experience dizziness or confusion
Exercise Guidelines
According to the American College of Sports Medicine position stand, “Appropriate Intervention Strategies for Weight Loss and Prevention of Weight Regain for Adults,” a minimum amount of 2.5 hours per week of physical activity at a moderate intensity can have “significant health benefits.”
American College of Exercise Sports Medicine Exercise Guidelines:
- Do moderate intensity cardio 30 minutes a day, 5 days per week
- Or
- Do vigorous intensity cardio 20 minutes a day, 3 days per week
- And
- Do 8 to 10 strength training exercises, 8 to 12 repetitions twice a week
Sample Workout Structure
- Warm up (Light stretching or mobility work): 5 to 10 minutes
- Exercise (cardio/strength training)
- Cool down (Light stretching or mobility work again): 5 to 10 minutes
Warm-up and cool down should be 5 to 10 minutes in duration to help minimize injury.
Monitoring Progress
- Body measurements: Measure your hips, waist, arms, and thigh. As you lose body fat these measurements will decrease gradually.
- Resting heart rate: A stronger, more efficient heart will have a lower resting heart rate.
- Clothes and jewelry: If you are trying to lose body fat, you may notice looseness in your clothing or in jewelry such as watches or rings.
- Weight: Unfortunately, this seems to be the last thing we can rely on. We may only notice a decrease in weight after seeing other improvements in our body.
Strength Training Myths
No, if you start strength training you will not get big, bulky muscle. When lifting weights you will get stronger and build muscle. You will start seeing benefits immediately.
Benefits of Strength Training
Some benefits of strength training include:
- Increasing your muscle mass (muscle burns more calories than fat).
- Resistance exercises, such as free weights, weight machines or resistance bands can affect bone mass, which can help prevent osteoporosis.
- Strength training plays a role in disease prevention. For the 14 million Americans with Type 2 diabetes, strength training along with other healthy lifestyle changes can help improve glucose control.
- Strength training boosts energy levels and improves your mood.
The Science of Weight Loss
It is a fact: You have to burn more calories than you eat and drink to lose weight. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), for weight loss what really matters is cutting back on the calories that you eat and drink. However, exercise pays off in the long run by keeping the pounds off.
It is important to keep in mind that although muscle building is site-specific, fat loss is not. Performing exercises that target a certain region of the body do not cause fat to burn away in that particular area. For example, doing tons of abdominal exercises does not lead to fat loss in the abdominal region.
How to Burn Fat
If you want to burn fat, do the following things:
- Eat a caloric deficit so you lose weight.
- Consume a well-balanced diet with ample protein and whole foods.
- Lift weights and get stronger so that you retain a greater proportion of muscle as you lose weight and lose a greater proportion of fat as you lose weight.
- Perform activities that increase your metabolic rate so that you expend more calories and achieve a greater caloric deficit. (Example: high to moderate intensity interval training with kettlebells, the rowing machine or treadmill.)
- Move around more.
Recommended Exercises
- Squats: One of the best exercises is also one of the most natural (just watch a baby sit). This movement works all of the muscles in the lower body including the quads, glutes and hamstrings. It also provides an extra kick for the core as you need your deep abdominal muscles and back to perform this exercise correctly.
- Pushups: This is one of the best upper body exercises because it works everything from your chest to your back, your arms and even your abs. Make sure your shoulders line up with your wrists and you tuck your elbows towards your sides (and don't flare out your elbows wide). Try to get your chest and hips as close to the floor as possible without touching.
- Planks: According to the American Council on Exercise, the plank exercise is one of the top ten abdominal exercises. This exercise is a great way to flatten your stomach, strengthen your core and improve the endurance of your back and stomach muscles. By strengthening your core, you will strengthen your hips and pelvic floor. Having a strong core, stomach and back muscles will lead to improved posture and may help prevent injuries.
Addressing Obesity in West Virginia
The Medical Weight Management Clinic began in 2019 as a centralized plan to provide comprehensive obesity treatment. “People haven’t always thought of obesity as a disease, they may have thought it was a result of lifestyle choices, but we know now there are physiological drivers for eating behaviors and the energy regulation system in our body,” said Laura Davisson, MD, MPH, FACP. “We offer team-based care where all the providers approach treating obesity from different angles to address each patient’s specific needs,” Dr. Davisson said.
Dr. Davisson, Hernandez-Pachon, and Dr. In the articles, authors recognized the prevalence of obesity in West Virginia and that many primary care providers feel ill-equipped to treat patients with the disease. “The findings of these articles indicate that with some additional tools and educational resources, primary care clinics and providers would be willing to take on the treatment of obesity which is amazing given all the existing responsibilities of primary care,” said Dr. Davisson. “Building a medical-surgical obesity center in an academic health system: Lessons learned” by Dr. Davisson, Dr. “We now have comprehensive treatment for obesity no matter which path a patient wants to take and we’re really proud of that,” said Dr. Davisson. The clinic also trains students across WVU Health Sciences as part of its mission to create a workforce of medical providers that can adequately treat patients with obesity in West Virginia.