Weight Management

The Colorado Center offers a number of weight management programs designed to fit a spectrum of different individual needs. These programs are rooted in the extensive experience by center staff as pioneers in the weight management field. They are based on proven science and are tailored to fit the different needs of people visiting the center.

Years of research on weight loss has demonstrated that it doesn’t really matter how you lose the weight but it does matter how you maintain it. Therefore, we offer a variety of different weight management programs, including those based on group interaction, one on one counseling, cognitive behavioral therapy, very low calorie diet, personal training and executive health. We work with individuals one on one to help them select a program that best suits their personal goals and preferences for how to approach weight management in a way that fits with their life.

Everyone knows that maintaining the weight loss, once accomplished, is the hardest part. And, the Colorado Center staff have been the pioneers in developing the scientific understanding of weight loss maintenance. Weight maintenance is a fundamentally different physiological process than weight loss and requires a different skill set. Research has shown that, unlike weight loss which can be accomplished using many different strategies, successful weight maintenance relies on a small number of strategies that apply to nearly everyone.

The Colorado Center offers a state of the art weight maintenance program designed for people who have lost weight using any weight loss program. It is designed to get people through the first year of weight maintenance, which is the period during which most people who have lost weight typically begin to regain it — this is when people need the most help and this is what is missing from virtually every other weight management program available today.

Researchers at the Colorado Center developed the concept of the “energy gap” which is the reduction in resting metabolism (calorie burning at rest) that occurs when you lose weight. The key to successful weight maintenance is to fill the “energy gap,” though a combination of increasing physical activity and decreasing food intake. What makes our program different is that we can provide quantitative targets for how much activity and how much intake reduction you need to do to maintain a given amount of weight loss. And, you get to choose how much of each strategy to use to best fit with your lifestyle. We have found that most “successful maintainers” prefer to fill the energy gap mostly through increased physical activity while not having to substantially restrict their food intake. The energy gap prescription is developed with the individual so that it fits with their life and is something they can do for the long haul.

Weight management programs

• Group-based weight management
• Physician-based weight management
• Dietitian-based weight management
• Internet weight management
• Family-based weight management
• Very low calorie diet
• Weight gain prevention

Some of the programs we have started to tackle this issue include:

• America On the Move/Small Changes
• Colorado Weigh
• Colorado Obesity Research Initiative (CORI)
• National Weight Control Registry