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Weight loss program branches out to Mount Pleasant by Heather Murphy Public Relations MUSC’s Weight Management Center (WMC) is extending its FOCUS program just in time for the New Year.  With the guidance of Patrick O’Neil, director of the WMC, a staff including a dietician, an exercise physiologist, psychology fellows and Pharm.D.s will begin FOCUS Mount Pleasant in the Kerr Drug store on Hwy. 17 North. “I’m delighted for the opportunity to offer our services at a community location in the fastest growing part of the Charleston area,” O’Neil said. “We’re grateful to William Kirchain, Pharm.D., of Kerr Drug and the MUSC Enhanced Pharmaceutical Care Center, for inviting us to offer a program at this facility.” “FOCUS is our most popular program right now,” Laura Pawlow, post-doctoral fellow in psychology, said. “It emphasizes lifestyle change. It’s not just a diet.” The program stresses active leisure, planned exercise, and behavior modification as well as weight control. “The participants consume supplements for two of three meals per day for the first eight weeks,” Pawlow said. “The food they do eat consists of lean meat, fruits and vegetables. Carbohydrates are included in the supplements.”  Because the program goal is lifestyle change, the 15 weeks consist of teaching participants how to eat for weight loss and maintenance of that loss, as well as nutrition education, counting calories, portion size, and how to read a food label.  “The take home point of FOCUS is that it’s multi-disciplinary,” said MUSC dietitian, Sarah Schultz. “It’s not just about weight loss. It’s about exercise, behavior modification, and nutrition. A lot of other programs deal only with the weight loss aspect, therefore they don’t see as much long term success as MUSC programs.” “FOCUS was a response to patient outcome data and a desire to improve upon those outcomes,” Martin Binks, post-doctoral psychology fellow, said. Binks helped create the FOCUS program and it’s recent expansion to Mount Pleasant. “We listened to our patients and realized there was a desire for a more individualized, time efficient setting. FOCUS is the balance of those things, but not at the expense of behavior modification, nutrition education, or exercise. “We found that some people wanted a program that was very strict in the beginning in order to jumpstart weight loss. There is less room for error or a slip if the reins are gradually let go throughout the progression of the program,” Binks said. Binks and his colleagues agree that the idea is not to be a revolving door, rather, to balance efficiency and a multi-disciplinary, problem-solving approach. In the body of all WMC programs is a relapse prevention philosophy to combat the all-or-none thinking often accompanied by a slip (“I had one brownie, so I might as well have two more since I already messed up today’s meal plan.”).  In addition to the standard curriculum, another benefit of the FOCUS program is the brief appointment tailored to whatever problems the participant faced during the past week.  “We want the program to address participant issues without losing the problem-solving approach that makes us different,” Binks said.    Beginning Jan. 10, participants will meet every Friday from 9 to 11 a.m. at Kerr Drug for 15 weeks. FOCUS costs $725 and includes professional services, a curriculum booklet, a calorie booklet, a pedometer (a device used to monitor physical activity), and eight weeks worth of supplements.  An orientation will be held for anyone interested in the program at 10 a.m. on Dec. 13 at Kerr Drug in Mount Pleasant.  For additional information contact the WMC at 792-2273 or e-mail wmc@musc.edu.   Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to petersnd@musc.edu or catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Community Press at 849-1778.