We have based our program on the consensus recommendations of the most highly respected weight management experts in the field, including the American Dietetic Association. In addition to very strong nutritional and exercise components, the program provides expert, individualized assistance in the area of lifestyle modification, the area most critical to your success.
To provide the ultimate in privacy and convenience, all sessions are private one-on-one meetings, and apart from your meetings on lifestyle skills with your psychologist, all sessions will be in your home. As an assurance of quality, we employ only professionals who possess the highest qualifications available in their respective fields. Our nutritionists are all Registered Dietitians; the individuals who will work with you on behavior modification are all PhD Licensed Clinical Psychologists; and all of your exercise sessions will be with a Certified Personal Trainer.
Lifestyle Modification: For the first four weeks you will see your psychologist weekly, thereafter biweekly. The fundamental role of the psychologist is to work with you to create a new healthier lifestyle that changes your relationship with food. We understand that making such changes is usually not an easy process, but our psychologists all have many years experience in helping people accomplish these kinds of objectives.
The approach used during your sessions will be based on cognitive-behavioral therapy, which is a well-studied, structured, time-limited, goal-oriented technique. Extensive research has demonstrated this approach to have great success with a full range of eating disorders. Cognitive-behavioral therapy teaches us how to track our thought patterns that may be contributing to weight management and other struggles, how to challenge these thoughts, and restructure them. Changing our thoughts often leads to changes in our emotional state and subsequent behavior. So, you’ll learn how to think and react
differently to what is happening in your life, thereby empowering you to control your emotional and behavioral responses.
Nutrition Sessions: You will see your Registered Dietitian on a bi-weekly basis. She will work with you to create an enjoyable, varied eating plan tailored to your likes, dislikes and general lifestyle. We want to create a habit of “healthy eating” of the sort that you can maintain for the rest of your life.
We’ll help you set reasonable goals and make the kind of lifestyle modifications necessary for long-term success. We generally design eating plans that create energy deficits of 250 to 500 calories per day. Additionally, you will be expected to expend a similar number of calories via your exercise program. Taken together this creates an overall deficit of between 500 and 1000 calories per day resulting in a weight loss of 1 to 2 pounds per week.
Adopting a new eating style that promotes weight loss almost invariably means lowering your total calorie intake. However, decreasing calories does not mean giving up taste, satisfaction or even ease of
meal preparation. There is no list of foods you can “never” have. For certain calorie dense items the rule may simply be “not as much and not as often”. There are no special foods or supplements to buy. We only recommend natural, whole foods suitable for the entire family, and the entire family often benefits from your new focus on healthy eating just as much as you do.
Exercise Sessions: Your personal trainer will come to your home twice a week. Generally, during these two 60-minute sessions the focus will be on strength training and flexibility. In addition, you will be expected to engage in some form of cardiovascular exercise on your own three or four times per week. Your trainer will lay out precisely what is expected of you during those sessions and keep careful track of your performance and progress. Do not be concerned about being asked to do more than you are capable of. We have many years experience getting people going who have not exercised in a long time or perhaps ever.
However, exercise is an absolutely essential part of our program. Over 90% of successful dieters exercise. Exercise is just too valuable a weight loss tool to forgo. Strength training increases the rate at which your body burns calories, and aerobic exercise allows you to directly burn a large number of calories in a short period.
Weight loss is simply a matter of calories in versus calories out. The best strategy is to cut calorie intake moderately and burn an equal number of calories through exercise, divided evenly between cardio and strength training. If your goal is to lose a pound a week, you’ll burn 250 calories a day through exercise, and reduce food intake by 250 calories a day. The goal is to integrate safe, efficient, exercise into a daily routine that you can maintain for the rest of your life.
This is the program. It entails working with us at least three times per week – twice a week with your personal trainer and once a week with either your dietitian or your psychologist. It is an intensive program, but one that we believe almost guarantees your success. It is comprehensive while allowing you to develop new lifestyle skills in the context of your normal everyday life. If you are serious about losing weight, give us a call on 703-904-7063. We’d be happy to answer your questions, and if you like, we can have someone come to your home and meet with you personally.
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