Being overweight (20 percent over normal weight guidelines for your frame and height) can increase your risk for developing diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, and other medical problems. Being obese (more than 30 percent above healthy body weight) doubles the risk for Cardiovascular Disease

If you're overweight, it's important to develop a weight-reduction plan with a trained expert. Studies show that "diets" don't work; controlling what you eat is only part of the challenge. To take the weight off (and keep it off), you need to make permanent lifestyle changes.

By exercising daily and eating healthy foods, you can maintain long-term weight loss. The key to daily exercise for weight management is increasing the total time you spend being active during the day to at least 30 minutes and making this a permanent part of your life.

Attitude is the most important factor. To achieve long-term weight loss, you must be willing to make permanent behavioral changes.

Here at the Wellness Center a Registered Dietitian can help you develop a weight loss plan, including a sensible diet and exercise regimen to achieve a healthy weight. While these changes take time, the Registered Dietitian can develop a gradual plan for changing food-intake patterns.

The goals of medical nutrition therapy are to:

• Help you separate food and weight-related behaviors from psychological issues
• Develop an action plan for changing food-intake patterns
• Create a lifelong sensible diet and exercise program for maintaining a healthy weight
• Help you use support and referral sources to stay on track
• Provide information on specific nutritional recommendations for associated medical conditions, such as heart disease, hypertension, and high cholesterol