First Step Available Downtown and Daniel Island First Step is a 15-week lifestyle change program that offers weight loss assistance through individual weekly meetings. It is appropriate for people of all weight ranges. The program helps you make changes in activity level, eating practices, and other behaviors related to weight control. Individual meal plans and exercise plans are included at the outset. We emphasize lifestyle change, which means we're going to help you make healthy changes that you can actually sustain long after you complete the program, thus enabling you to maintain a healthier weight for the rest of your life. First Step promotes a significant yet gradual and long-lasting weight loss. Focus Available Downtown and Daniel Island The Focus program is a 15-week intensive lifestyle change program designed to induce larger initial weight losses than traditional lifestyle change programs (i.e., First Step). Patients attend brief individual appointments that rotate among the clinic sub-specialties (nutrition, exercise, behavioral). The early part of the program involves a diet that consists primarily of meal replacements (e.g., nutrition bars and shakes) and provides a highly structured dietary intervention. During the latter part of the program, the diet changes to a primarily food based meal plan and shifts towards more moderate weight loss. Individualized dietary and exercise planning is provided throughout the program. Our emphasis on lifestyle change means we're going to help you learn to make healthy changes that you can actually sustain long after you complete the program, thus enabling you to maintain a healthier weight for the rest of your life. HealthFast Available Downtown This 30-week program, designed for people who need to lose more than 50 pounds, combines medically supervised supplemented fasting with instructions in lifestyle change techniques to help you make the lifestyle changes necessary to maintain a healthier weight. The program has two phases: a highly structured supplemented fast, which is followed by a period of transition back onto food and learning to maintain a healthy food-based diet. During the initial stages of the program, participants consume approximately 800 calories per day, consisting primarily of nutrition shakes and bars. HealthFast offers a more rapid, but safe rate of weight loss for people with more weight to lose. PREOP
Available Downtown and Daniel Island
Patient Readiness and Education for Obesity surgery Program (PREOP) is a 6-month program designed to educate and prepare people who are considering weight loss surgery. This comprehensive program is physician-monitored and includes regular dietary, exercise, and psychological instruction and support. Additionally, most insurance companies require that people have participated in a physician-monitored weight loss program within the recent past. PREOP is designed to comprehensively prepare people to optimally succeed with weight loss surgery, and it also meets the above insurance requirement for most medical insurance companies. Individual Services In addition to our weight management package programs, we also offer individual services, so that patients may customize their weight management programs, and choose the specific services to suit their preferences. Available options include:
Nutrition Consultation:
A registered dietitian is available to meet on an individual basis for weight management, low-fat, low-cholesterol diets, low-sodium diets, diabetes meal planning and other nutrition-related concerns.
Medication Management: Weight Management Center physicians can evaluate you for the latest FDA approved weight control medication and oversee your treatment.
Exercise Consultation: Attend individual meetings with an exercise physiologist to develop or alter exercise routines. Also, patients of the Weight Management Center may access the Medical University Wellness Center (with membership fees). Behavioral Instruction: On an individual basis we can help you adopt necessary behavioral and cognitive changes and target problem areas that may impact your ability to lose weight and maintain weight loss.
Body Composition (percent body fat) Assessment: Bioelectrical impedance is used to determine total body fat percentage and to make recommendations for improvement.
MedGem Assessment: We measure your oxygen consumption to determine how many calories you can consume at rest to maintain current weight Research Programs The Weight Management Center frequently participates in trials of medications being studied as possible weight loss aids. To receive information on these trials when they are announced, e-mail wmc@musc.edu or phone 792-2273 for a form to be placed on our mailing list. Back to Top | 
