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UNC Weight Management Program at Family Medicine

The UNC Family Medicine Center offers behavioral weight management to help people with greater risk for weight-related health problems lead healthier lives and maximize their well-being. Our program is part of the UNC Multidisciplinary Weight Management Program; to learn about the medical and surgical programs as well, click here. For more information or to enroll, ask your primary care provider for a referral or call 984-974-6519.

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Message from the Director

We provide behavioral counseling services based on these guiding principles:

Sustainability: The health plans and programs that work best focus on sustained long-term change. It is important to celebrate progress, eat foods that taste good, and participate in activities that make us feel strong – in body and mind. The Weight Management Program focuses on identifying skills and strategies for dealing with all kinds of challenges that may arise, empowering clients to maintain the changes they have made long after they graduate from our program.

Maintaining 5 to 10% Weight Loss: Losing 5 to 10% of your starting weight is associated with health benefits including improvements in blood pressure, blood sugar levels, cholesterol, and triglycerides. It is also a realistic, achievable goal with sustained changes in diet and physical activity. Program participants can and do often lose more than 10%, but we encourage starting with a goal of 5 to 10% for the above reasons.

Actions > Weight: Actions are ultimately more important than the number on the scale. You can improve your health by taking healthy actions consistently, no matter how much you weigh. Hard work may not immediately show up on a scale in the way we would like it to, but it still counts. The Weight Management Program emphasizes setting goals, both short-term and long-term, that are measurable without using a scale. Examples include: energy level, mood, clothing size, hours of sleep, steps per day or activities per week, or servings of vegetables or fruit per day.

Self-Care: It is a natural human tendency to be hard on ourselves, especially with so many messages about body image and weight loss in the media and our community. Our bodies allow us to do all of the things we do on a daily basis and it is important to honor the hard work we are doing in taking care of our physical and mental health.