Many of our patients are veterans of other programs and
come to us because they've heard of our success in helping
people achieve significant weight reduction. We find
most patients achieve the weight loss they desire if they
change their lifestyle to include regular aerobic exercise
and a healthy low-fat diet which includes fruits and
vegetables.

We like to describe our program as being like a stool
with three legs: diet, exercise and medication. All three
components of the program must be worked on in order for you
to achieve your weight loss goal. Your doctor can adjust the
medication so as to effectively curb your appetite, thereby
making it easier to stick to the diet, but only you do the
exercise and comply with the diet. Thus, your commitment to
losing weight will be critical to your success.

Our program emphasizes developing a healthy life style
which includes a well balanced, nutritious eating plan and regular
aerobic exercise. The eating plans utilized by our program
are similiar to Weight Watchers'
or the American Heart Association plan. These are eating plans
which you can easily live with after you lose your weight,
making it easier to maintain your weight at its optimal
level. We find that once patients adopt their new life style,
they maintain their desired body weight for extended periods
after leaving the program. Although we do not advocate the
long-term continuous use of medication for weight
management, we find that some patients maintain their
desired weight with the intermittent use of medication in
conjunction with a proper eating plan and exercise.

The recommended eating plan is described simply as 3, 3 and 3:
three meals a day, three fruits a day and three vegetables a
day. Eating plans include normal food. The purpose
of our program is to teach you good eating habits and to
help you lose weight. You are not allowed to go on a
starvation diet, a liquid protein diet or a live-on-powder
diet. It is important that you eat several times every day
using the guidelines below: