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The Win Weight Loss Program for Obesity
Click here for the Spanish Version of the Win Weight Loss Program
Obesity is becoming more prevalent in the pediatric population. Obese patients are those whose weight percentile for age is significantly greater than height percentile for age on the pediatric growth curve or those with a Body Mass Index (BMI) greater than 30. A BMI of 25 to 29 is still considered very overweight and needs to be addressed.
We now have a program at Georgia Pediatric Cardiology about which we are very excited. The name of the program is the Win Program. This program is designed to help and encourage our obese patients to exercise, eat healthier, lose weight and have fun while doing it. We not only involve our patients in the Win Program, but we encourage the whole family to get involved, as this enhances the patient compliance.
The Win Program involves five components:
- 1. Watch what you eat. To assist with this, we give patients a Heart Healthy Diet Sheet designed by the American Heart Association.
- 2. Drink more water. We ask our patients to drink 80-120 fl. oz. of water daily, while at the same time reducing or eliminating caffeine intake.
- 3. Begin walking. We ask our patients to walk 30-45 minutes daily, 5 or 6 days a week. If this is to strenuous at first, it is reasonable to modify this at the beginning and walk 20 minutes daily, 3 or 4 days a week and increase activity as tolerated.
- 4. Reward. If our patients do the above three things, they will lose weight. We like to reward our patients for losing weight, usually $1 for every pound lost.
- 5. With losing weight you get healthier and get rewarded. Everybody is a winner…
The Win Program has so far proven to be successful. We have many patients who have already lost 5 or 10 pounds. We even have two patients who have lost 75 pounds! We estimate our success rate to be at nearly 80% and hope to continue improving upon this.
Body Mass Index (BMI) can be found using this three-step formula:
- 1. Multiply your weight by 704.5
- 2. Determine your height in inches and square it.
- 3. Divide your first answer by your second.