The Weight Control Support Center

Every person is unique, but when you face a challenge like weight control, you are never alone.  Countless men, women and children have faced the exact same diagnosis and have survived and thrived.  The following guide is designed to help you navigate your journey with the best information and resources that helped other survivors when they faced the same challenge. 

TSC has scoured the Internet and assembled links to the very best weight control resources: articles, blogs, forums and tools that can help you make better decisions and take action to overcome the range of physical, emotional and other challenges that you face.

As you’ll see, we always welcome your ideas and suggestions to make this Weight control Guide even more helpful to survivors like you.   

JUST FOUND OUT  

Survivors Say: Best Resources for Weight control

• Medline Plus: Weight Control
  
• Family Doctor: Nutrition for Weight Loss - What it Takes to Lose Weight 
• Weight Control Information Network: Weight Loss for Life
  

The Big Picture

Achieving a healthy weight can help you control your cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar. It might also help you prevent weight-related diseases, such as heart disease, diabetes, arthritis and some cancers.

A weight-control strategy might include

• Choosing low-fat, low-calorie foods
• Eating smaller portions
• Drinking water instead of sugary drinks
• Being physically active
  

To better understand weight control and its importance:

Medline Plus: Weight Control

Your Weight control

To find out more about weight control, use the WebMD portal. Here you will find tips about potion control, exercise and more, as well as access to weight control professionals.

WebMd: Expert Answers to Your Diet Questions

Because weight control can be necessary as a result of many disorders and diseases, make sure you choose a weight control plan based on your specific needs.

Medicine Net: Special Diets - What Can I Eat? 

Your World

After being diagnosed with a weight control problem, it's understandable for patients to experience a flood of emotions. It's important to talk with your loved ones and reach out to support centers during the initial stages of your journey. For advice on dealing with the tangled web of emotions you may be going through, visit

Robs Branham Foundation: Finding Emotional Support

Telling others about your weight goals can be daunting, but this article provides advice that may help:

AJC: Thinner You - How to Tell Others About Your Weight Loss Goals 

Weight control Myths

• Diet fads work
• Skipping meals increases weight loss

Information and Recommended Links for Survivors

• American Heart Association Guidelines for Weight Management Programs for Healthy Adults
  
• Weight Control Information Network
• Women to Women: Healing Core Imbalances
  

Types of Treatment

Diet

Changing your diet can be an essential part of weight control. This site provides carefully selected recipes to help you with your weight control.

Shape Up America: Recipes

Exercise

As more and more people face a need for weight control, the government has stepped up and provided guidelines on how much exercise is needed to lose weight and keep it off as well as ideas for ways to enjoy being physically active.

The Medical News: U.S. Government Says, Exercise, Exercise, Exercise!

Surgery

For people morbidly obese, weight loss surgery may be their last hope of controlling their weight. To find out about different types of weight control surgery this link can help.

Weight Loss Surgery Info

Possible Treatment Side Effects

Complications and Risks of Bariatric Surgery can occur. These include: death, blood clots, leaking, hernias and others.

For more information, visit:

Mayo Clinic: Gastric Bypass Surgery - What Can You Expect?

Holistic Treatments

Behavior Modification Therapy

In patients with diabetes and other heath disorders, behavior modification therapy has been found useful. For more information visit:

Diabetes Spectrum: New Directions in Behavioral Weight-Loss Programs

Creating a support circle

• Set up your TSC Survivor Profile
• Join support groups of other survivors or set up your own
• Interact and provide updates on your profile or our forums
  

Insurance & Work Matters

Insurance Matters

Insurance companies often pay at least part of weight loss surgery costs. For more information visit

Weight Loss Surgery Info: Insurance & Financial Considerations

Some insurance plans may also cover some of the cost of other weight control programs and plans, but you should check with your personal provider for details.

Work Matters

Many companies offer discounts on gym membership or on-site exercise facilities to help their employees with their weight control goals. Check with your employer about joining their weight control program or starting one.

Health-care Providers Who Can Help

Many different people work in the weight control field, including nutritionists, personal fitness instructors, nurses, physicians and others.

Resources to Find Doctors

Choosing and Communicating with a Weight control Specialist. Premier Doctors - Weight Loss Doctors Directory

How to Find a Doctor or Treatment Center. Physicians Weight Loss Centers 

The Emotional Roller-coaster

Going through weight loss can be an emotional roller coaster not only for the individual with weight control issues, but for friends and family as well. Finding support for what you are going through not only helps make weight control easier, but it can also help to be more successful and long-lasting as well.

Books Survivors Recommend

• Diet for Dancers: A Complete Guide to Nutrition and Weight Control
  
• Nutrition, Weight Control and Exercise
  
• Pure and Simple Natural Weight Control
  
• The Volumetrics Weight-Control Plan: Feel Full on Fewer Calories    
  

What Survivors Wish They’d Known


Communicating with Your Health-care providers

• Ask your doctor about weight control options.
  
• Accept the plan or advice they lay out for you.
  
• Follow-up on the plan by visiting your doctor regularly throughout the process.
  

Dealing with Weight control: Information and Recommended Links for Co-Survivors

How you can help

• Give them healthy options without the distraction of temptation.
• Prepare healthy meals for them.
• Offer to exercise and eat with them. Weight control is often more successful and long-lasting when done in a supportive environment.
  

What to say    

• "I will support your decision in whichever treatment option you choose and which doctors and hospitals you go to"
• "I will help you by dieting and exercising with you”
• Tell them how proud you are of their decision

What not to say

• "It’s about time"
• "You’re going to miss out on a lot of good food”
• "It’ll never last"
  

Things you can do for a survivor every day

Offer day to day to support for your friend or family member with weight control goals. Tell them how much you love them and how proud you are of them for living a healthy lifestyle. Support them by joining in their new lifestyle and not offering them temptations.

How to build a support network

• Set up your TSC Co-Survivor Profile
• Create a support group for your friend or family member.
• Interact and provide updates
  

How to help a survivor deal with day-to-day challenges

• Schools and obesity in children: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - Make a Difference at Your School 
• Tips on Returning to Work After Weight loss surgery: Weight Loss Surgery - Life After Weight Loss Surgery

Weight control is a difficult task and recurrence of weight gain is common. To avoid yo-yoing, find a weight control plan that is safe to use over the long-term and has definite goals. Weight loss surgery helps people lose a lot of weight and then return to a regular eating pattern. Safe diets emphasize healthy food choices and portion control, rather than extremes.

Remission / Recovery / Recurrence      

Weight cycling is common, but it doesn’t necessarily make it harder to lose weight. It has, however, been linked to other health risks. For more on the hazards of yo-yo dieting:

Medicine.net: Weight Cycling - Facts About "Yo-Yo" Dieting

This site offers tips on how to stay away from yo-yo diets and maintain a safe and healthy weight over the long term.

 

Epigee: Crash and Burn - Yo-Yo and Crash Dieting 

For an incredible story of a weight control survivor and the feelings he experienced during treatment and after recovery, take a look at

Give back


What helped you while you were dealing with the diagnosis, undergoing treatment and realized you had recovered? Take a look back at your journey and share with other what helped you and what you wished you would have known/done during your weight control experience. You can create a profile, reach out to other survivors, join support circles or share your story by following the links at TheSurvivorsClub.org. Check out some of the best charities for supporting weight control research or offering support to survivors:

If your initial weight control plan does not work for you, try, try again. There are lots of weight control options out there and one of them is just waiting for you. Talk with others about what they do to control their weights and find a solution that is right for you.