CMWL WEIGHT LOSS STUDY: WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR YOU?

A new study published online this week in the American Journal of Medicine has some exciting news for those on the Center for Medical Weight Loss (CMWL) program or those considering a medically supervised approach to weight loss it works much better than anything else!

On average, people on the CMWL program lost 11 percent of their body weight over a period of 12 weeks. That would mean, for example, a 28 pound weight loss in 12 weeks for someone who weighed 250 pounds.

That’s a very exciting result, especially when compared to an average weight loss of one pound or less per week for someone following a non-medical weight loss plan. On these plans, the same 250 pound person would lose 12 pounds or less over the same 12 week period.

To determine how well the CMWL program was working, researchers looked back over the weight loss records of over 400 program participants at four different CMWL clinics. Unlike many studies, the program participants weren’t recruited or paid nor did they or their doctors know whose results would be included they were just average patients following the plan.

So while I have personally seen many patients lose weight quickly, safely, and permanently on the program, this study confirms that our unique medically supervised approach which includes meal plans, body composition, weight loss analysis, and regular behavioral counseling, works twice as well as the typical weight loss program.

That’s exciting news indeed for the 1 in 3 Americans who are clinically obese and whose health is at risk as a result. They can lose the weight and keep it off, and a medically supervised weight loss program can help.

In January of 2012, Medicare and many private health insurance plans started covering the cost of medically supervised weight loss. This means that not only can you lose weight more effectively on a medically supervised weight loss plan, the cost of the program may be covered in part or in full by your health insurance plan.

If you have excess weight to lose, the results of this study show that the CMWL approach not only works, it works twice as well as other subscription based weight loss programs.

We’re now looking at how the program works over a one-year period in a current study, and are seeing a similar success rate. People are not only losing weight, they are keeping that weight off.

For me, the study results confirm my belief that obesity should be approached as a medical condition, and that doctors specifically trained in weight loss should be treating it. And that’s very exciting news indeed!