Shed Pounds Safely at The Queen's Medical Center's Comprehensive Weight Management Program

CWMP office coordinator Diane Ratliff and Edie Ramsdell, MD, at a body composition analyzer, a tool they use to assess patients' body fat percentage and basal metabolic rate.

The Queen's Medical Center's Comprehensive Weight Management Program (CWMP) can help anyone who is overweight by 10 to 100 pounds or more. Three components of the CWMP (or a combination thereof) meet the needs of all comers: traditional nutrition, fitness and lifestyle management; the Meal Replacement Program; and gastric bypass surgery (headed by CWMP surgical director Kenric Murayama, MD).

To learn about any part of the program, anyone who is interested can simply attend a free presentation held once a month. A person who decides to enter the program is initially evaluated by the CWMP team. The program's health professionals then design a plan that is best for you and your body.

The most important thing to remember about undergoing any weight loss program is that it should be done in a medically sound way. A currently emerging fad is to get advice from a "health advisor," a minimally trained sales person who sells meal replacements as a way to lose weight. Edie Ramsdell, MD, Co-Medical Director of CWMP, warns that although many meal replacements are good products, health advisors don't have information on a person's health, nor are they qualified to give health care advice. If a person has high cholesterol, hypertension, diabetes or other health problems, embarking on a weight loss program without sound medical guidance can be dangerous.

By contrast, those who come to the CWMP have access to clinical psychologists, registered dietitians and physicians who specialize in nutrition, fitness and lifestyle management. The CWMP uses meal replacements, but prescribes them in a way that can help dieters keep weight off by addressing all aspects of weight loss-from the physical to the emotional.

The next session for "Create your Weight," a group class for those with less than 25 pounds to lose, begins January 23, 2006. Call 808.537.SLIM (537-7546) to register, or for more information on any CWMP offering. Free presentations giving an overview of CWMP are held on every fourth Wednesday of the month from 5:00pm to 7:00pm at The Queen's Conference Center. Reservations are required; please call 808.537.7117.