I. PRE-PARTICIPATION EVALUATION Prior to beginning the program, you must: § Undergo a complete medical history and physical exam searching for hidden cardiac, pulmonary and metabolic disease. § Have a panel of lab tests (such as a complete blood count, cholesterol, diabetes tests including screening for occult “pre-diabetes,” special markers of body inflammation, and more). § Undergo a treadmill cardiac stress test, to ensure that rigorous exercise is safe for you. § Undergo accurate body composition (percent fat vs. lean tissue) and basal metabolic rate testing § Only after your complete mental and physical health status is determined, can an appropriate personalized exercise and diet plan be created for you.
II. EDUCATION While most diet plans require you to purchase (expensive!) pre-packaged meals from them, or completely eliminate certain foods from your diet, we feel that these types of changes are not sustainable for more than a few months – certainly not for the rest of your life. While it may seem easier in the short-term to have choices like this made for you, we truly believe that in order for you to lose your excess fat and have a legitimate chance of keeping it off forever, you must learn how to do it yourself. Forget the heavily advertised gimmicks. At best, they’re short-term fixes. Once your weight loss program is established, you’ll have access to a weekly group phone education/mentoring session run by doctors, nutritionists, weight loss psychologists, and fitness experts. You will learn the fundamentals of nutrition and exercise physiology, calorie-counting principles, and how to make smart choices in the real world. Have you ever wondered: ▪What an antioxidant really is and how it impacts the body? ▪What a trans-fat is, and why they are so poisonous to our health and well-being? ▪Which foods have been shown to help prevent cancer and heart disease? ▪Which exercises burn the most calories for the least amount of effort? ▪What determines your metabolic rate, and what tricks you can use to increase it? These are just a few of the questions that will be answered as we teach you about your health and well-bring – and provide weekly accountability on your weight loss journey.
III. EXERCISE The cornerstone of the WOW! R× is regular aggressive exercise. Using scientific research and personal experience as our guide, we will teach you the most effective exercises to maximize fat loss and cardiovascular health. Because muscle is one of the biggest determinants of metabolism (calorie-burning ability), we also include a strength training regimen to help you retain (or in many cases even build) as much muscle as possible. You will be pushed to exercise harder than you may be accustomed to, but don’t worry! You are capable of much more than you think! Dr. Huizenga has had success with countless obese and morbidly obese patients who had never exercised in their LIVES (even those with severe knee and ankle problems), and Dr. Kerns experienced the program first-hand as a 270-pound obese woman. You won’t have to undergo grueling 4-6 hour-a-day workouts like the contestants on The Biggest Loser ranch did, but in order to maximize fat burning, you will exercise a lot more than the 15-30 minute stroll 3 days a week that the Surgeon General recommends! Of course, the “weight loss” exercise requirements are substantially different from the “weight maintenance” exercise needs. But don’t even begin if you don’t understand that you have little if any chance of maintaining any of your weight loss without exercise! The largest scientific database of successful weight losers – over 5,000 subjects who’ve lost at least 30 pounds and kept it off for long periods of time – reveals one of their most important habits is exercising between an hour and an hour and a half a day.
IV. DIET Any “deprivation” diet will lead to weight loss in the short-term. You can eat a low-carb diet, a liquid diet, only grapefruit or cabbage soup… and as long as your total calories are lower and your activity is unchanged, you will drop weight. Sadly, healthy fat loss is not that simple! Some of the many problems with these types of diets: Up to 75% of the initial weight that you lose is fluid and metabolically-active muscle tissue! Even after several weeks, the weight lost is made up of approximately 30-40% lean tissue. In other words, only 60-70% of the weight loss is fat! Muscle is critical! If you lose 60 pounds, but 15 pounds of that is muscle, your metabolism will be much slower, and you will be forced to eat even fewer calories than before just to maintain your weight. Once the diet ends and you inevitably go back to your previous eating habits, you quickly regain the weight (and frequently end up even heavier than you were before you started). No example is better than Oprah’s experience with a liquid diet in 1988 – she has called her four-month, 67-pound weight loss an “iconic mistake,” as she regained it all (and then some) after ending the diet. The personalized nutrition plan that you will follow on the WOW! Rx is one that will not only maximize your energy levels and keep you from feeling hungry, but will also maximize your metabolism and calorie-burning machinery (even while you sleep!). And the most important part of losing weight is being able to keep it off, wouldn’t you agree?! Once you reach your WOW weight, we will customize your plan so that you can increase your calorie intake, decrease your exercise amount, and maintain that weight for the rest of your life. The nutrition plan isn’t a temporary diet, but rather a change in your eating habits and lifestyle that you can
V. WEIGHT LOSS PSYCHOLOGY While some people are overweight simply because they lead a sedentary lifestyle and choose high-calorie, fat-building foods, others tend to use food for emotional reasons (e.g., as an escape from stress) or even feel addicted to certain types of foods. As part of the weekly WOW Rx phone meetings, participants will have the opportunity to meet with our expert weight-loss psychologist, Dr. Alexa Altman. Not only has Dr. Altman helped thousands of patients, but she was also the psychologist who helped The Biggest Loser “Home” participants address underlying issues and tackle their weight.
VI. FOLLOW-UP AND MAINTENANCE While any plan out there can help you lose weight by temporarily changing your diet or exercise routine, very few actually teach you how to modify the plan for lifelong maintenance. Maintaining your new WOW! weight is the major battle! We aren’t just fair weather friends, following you weekly to help you maximize fat loss just until you achieve your goal weight. We feel that a maintenance program is just as important! Once you are close to your goal, we will re-evaluate your body composition and modify your nutrition plan and exercise routine to help you keep the fat off forever. We will also continue to stay in contact with our participants, and will always be available to get you back onto the program if you run into trouble.
VII. PROGRAM SCHEDULE Read “Where Did All the Fat Go? §Set Up Office Appt for Obesity Consultation §Prescription of Individualized Fat Loss Plan §Weekly Journaling and Phone Follow-Up (Generally, the program length will vary as follows: Overweight (BMI approximately 25 – 29.9): 3 months Obese (BMI approximately 30- 39.9): 6 months Morbidly obese (BMI approximately 40 or higher): 9-12 months) §Once you achieve your WOW weight, you will follow a maintenance plan, and of course you may hook up subsequently via phone sessions in person to stay connected if you so choose.
VIII. COST Dr. Robert Huizenga is a non-participating provider for all insurance companies, but our office will bill your health insurance company on your behalf for reimbursement. Insurance reimbursement will differ depending on individual policies and companies. Total initial charges: §Pre-participation complete history/physical exam, body composition evaluation, baseline pictures, comprehensive laboratory panel and treadmill stress test $1,750 §Six Month review of exercise, diet and weight journals and participation in weekly sixty minute group phone session $600
