"Weighty Advice" by Joe Miller, News & Observer on May 10, 2007

The mantra's still the same: eat less, exercise more. But one Raleigh clinic is backing that up with a staff that includes dietitians, fitness trainers and even a 'life coach.'

The June issue of Consumer Reports ranks the nation's top diets, top diet books and top strategies for losing weight. And despite the barrage of quick-hit fad diets that continue to flood bookshelves and fuel late-night TV infomercials, the magazine's findings reiterate what has been said for years about losing weight:

• If you want to lose it and keep it off, watch what you eat.
• Pay attention to how much you eat.
• Exercise.

That's been the mantra of mainstream health-care providers -- from the American Medical Association to local practitioners -- for years.

"The people I see who are most successful with weight loss combine healthy diet with exercise," says Beth Drossman, an exercise physiologist with WakeMed's cardiac rehabilitation program. You won't get an argument from the folks in the trenches, either. "To me, it's not about denying myself things," says Steve Clayton, who tried various popular diets before enrolling in a lifestyle-based program last year and dropping 124 pounds. "It's about being conscious of what I'm doing."

"The basic formula for losing weight has not changed," Consumer Reports writes. "Consume fewer calories than you burn -- about 500 fewer every day to lose about a pound a week. Not an easy task, or why would legions of people try, fail and fail again in their weight-loss efforts?"

So why does dropping a few pounds continue to be such a struggle for so many? A year-old Raleigh weight-loss clinic believes it has the solution, a solution it hopes may one day land it atop Consumer Reports' "top losers" list.

Strategy and network

When Dr. E. Brooks Wilkins told a colleague he was launching a weight-loss clinic based on portion control and exercise, the colleague scoffed." 'But that's what we've been saying for years,' he told me," says Wilkins, who has run a family practice in Raleigh for 30 years True. But Wilkins felt a crucial element was missing from the equation: a comprehensive support network. Something well beyond, say, Weight Watchers' weekly weigh-ins, or the diet and exercise logs central to many weight-loss programs. He envisioned something that would bring all the elements under one roof: physicians, dietitians, exercise physiologists and trainers, even a "life coach," psychologist, clinical pharmacist and local chefs to demonstrate healthy meal cooking. Heck, maybe even a staff molecular biologist to try to isolate the genes that may indicate obesity. In addition to a huge potential market -- nearly two-thirds of the U.S. population is considered overweight or obese -- Wilkins also had a personal reason for opening such a clinic. His 21-year-old daughter, Lucy Elizabeth, died of lymphoma 3 1/2 years ago, the treatment for which was complicated by her obesity. Thus motivated, Wilkins opened the Institute of Lifestyle & Weight Management in North Raleigh a year ago.

Institute connotes a certain breadth, and Wilkins has tried to make sure his facility lives up to the name.

Each of the institute's clients, now in excess of 300, must go through a three-hour orientation. Clients meet with one of the institute's on-site dietitians and fitness trainers, as well as the exercise physiologist and life coach, who can help clients get through particularly trying times. After the orientation, clients are given a general meal plan, as well as a tailored workout program that can be followed in the on-site workout facility. This has flat-screen HDTVs liberally mounted throughout, a wireless network that lets clients e-mail while exercising and the latest treadmills, elliptical trainers and weight machines just like those found at most high-end gyms.

Well, almost.

"They're slightly oversized," points out Marc Fusco, an institute vice president and its chief technology officer. In fact, the institute has a number of subtle adaptations for its clientele: chairs without restrictive arms, floors with an inch-thick rubber subsurface to ease knee strain, slightly wider doorways. Even its color scheme -- brown, mustard and blue -- was chosen, Fusco says, because of its calming effect. The institute also sponsors about 10 educational programs a week, movie night and the occasional potluck. The latter two, Fusco says, are because a strong support network and a sense of community are key for most people trying to lose weight.

"It's 'Cheers' without the alcohol," Fusco says, quoting a phrase that is often used around the institute. The institute charges clients $92 a month, after an initial $399 diagnostic session. Although Wilkins and Fusco estimate that most clients will probably commit one to three years to the program, no long-term commitment is required. Membership is on a month-by-month basis.

One determined client

The institute shies away from making bold promises about what kind of weight loss to expect.

"We estimate that you should lose about 10 percent of your weight in the first six to nine months," Wilkins says. That didn't go over well with Steve Clayton when he went through his orientation a year ago. "Dr. Wilkins told me I could expect to lose 34 pounds," says Clayton, who is 5-foot-7 and weighed 334 at the time. "In my mind, I knew I could lose more than that."Clayton had struggled with weight issues since his youth and battled morbid obesity for more than 15 years. A 20-month stretch of unemployment during that time didn't help. "I bought exercise bikes, a Bowflex, all that stuff, but I never used it," Clayton says. He also tried various popular weight-loss programs, to no avail. In 1998, he was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, which can be brought on by being overweight. Clayton works as a software analyst, and his company did work for the institute before its opening. As part of the deal, the company was given seven memberships, which it raffled off. "I was one of the lucky ones," Clayton says.

It might not have seemed so at first. In the days leading up to the physical he was required to take for the program, Clayton says he was a wreck. His diabetes, high blood pressure, perpetual shortness of breath -- he feared the clinicians would tell him he was beyond hope. "I was facing my mortality," Clayton says. His worst fears proved unfounded; he was cleared to enter the program. "That was my moment of clarity," he recalls. "That's when I knew I could do it."He lost those first 34 pounds by July, lost 70 by September and met his one-year goal of 120 pounds in April. He's down another four pounds since and plans to drop another 30, to get down to about 190.

He has abandoned a McDonald's lifestyle for fruits and vegetables -- though he has no reservations about the occasional indulgence. He has gone through three wardrobe downsizings costing him about $2,000 (a lot for a jeans-and-T-shirt computer guy). He no longer takes medication for diabetes, he bought a full drum kit (a lifelong dream) and he is resurrecting the social life he abandoned years ago.

"I guess I'm just like any other dude out there," Clayton says. While he is quick to credit the institute and acknowledge the one-two punch of diet and exercise, he also knows that no matter how good a program is, it still comes down to one thing.

"It's not the program that fails," Clayton says. "It's the will to succeed."

View the original article from the News & Observer:  Page 1 - Page 2

On behalf of Dr. Wilkins and the staff at ILWM, we would like to send a very special thank you to Joe Miller and The News & Observer for recognizing our efforts and allowing us to share our story with Raleigh and the surrounding Triangle area!