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Did you know you may be able to use money in your Flexible Spending Account to pay for the Vtrim Online weight loss program?

A weight loss program prescribed by your physician to treat a medical condition (such as diabetes, obesity, hypertension or heart disease) is considered a medical expense.

All weight loss program expenses submitted through flex spending need a doctor’s referral specifying the medical condition requiring weight loss. Once you are officially signed up for Vtrim, you can use the money from your 2010 Flexible Spending Account if your participation is approved as a medical expense. The referral must be reviewed by your HR representative for final approval. You can use the money in your Flexible Spending Account from January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2010.  Click here to read more.

Please e-mail or call us at 802-656-1425 if you’d like more information or have questions.  We hope to “see” you online in 2010!

Think choosing healthy foods cost more than higher fat, higher sugar choices at the grocery store? Not convinced that a healthier lifestyle will save you money? Well a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) would argue otherwise.

The CDC reports that national health care costs for obesity-related diseases have now reached $147 billion. The new report says that these obesity-associated costs make up 9.1% of total U.S. spending on medical expenses. The report shares further details that the average obese American spends 40% more on health care than the average normal weight American–$1400 more per year! Can you think of something better to spend $1400 a year on than health care?

The CDC estimates that drug costs alone are $600 higher each year for Medicare participants who are obese than for normal-weight participants. And research has well documented that weight loss helps to lower risk for high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and diabetes, all of which are common diseases with associated prescription expenses. Still not convinced? One of our past Vtrim participants shared his prescription drug profile from BEFORE and AFTER losing 70 pounds:

Prior to Weight Loss:

• BMI = 38.25
• 7 total medications for blood pressure, cholesterol, and diabetes
• Monthly co-pay (AFTER insurance payment) = $412.70

After Weight Loss:

• BMI = 29.13
• 4 medications DISCONTINUED, 2 medication dosages CUT IN HALF
• Monthly co-pay (AFTER insurance payment) = $40.32
• A 90% decrease in monthly medication expenses, saving over $350/month!

The cost of obesity isn’t always easy to see and unfortunately, the benefits that come from a healthy lifestyle aren’t always things you experience immediately. It takes time to build healthy habits and see the payoff in higher energy levels and lower disease risks. But lowering direct expenses each month in medical expenses is money you can put to better use elsewhere–Consider it investing in your health!

To check out a schedule of upcoming Vtrim classes, go to www.uvm.edu/vtrim. Start investing in your health today!

I was perusing the web on all topics weight loss the other day, which is a frequent pastime of mine.  I like to know what is out there and what people are reading since there is a good chance it will come up in an online meeting I am leading.  I came across the Weight Control Information Network (WIN) site, a service provided by the National Institutes of Health.  I was curious how Vtrim measured up to their standards knowing that we would be really close to what they recommended.  I was pleased to see we meet all of their criteria for a safe and responsible weight loss program.  Click here to read more on their site, but in a nutshell, below is how Vtrim meets their high standards.

WIN says, safe and effective weight-loss programs should include:

1. Healthy eating plans that reduce calories but do not forbid specific foods or food groups. This is a core tenet of the Vtrim philosophy.  Each person figures out how to manage their food intake based on their own personal circumstances.  A calorie and fat gram goal is provided to help guide the process but individuals get to choose what they want to eat within those parameters.

2. Tips to increase moderate-intensity physical activity. Vtrim provides tips but more importantly takes it one step further and provides a systematic, graduated exercise program so people can incorporate moderate intensity activity into their life in a gradual, sustainable way.

3. Tips on healthy habits that also keep your cultural needs in mind, such as lower-fat versions of your favorite foods. Sustainable behavior change is the goal so Vtrim encourages people to modify recipes and problem solve ways to continue to incorporate favorite foods but in a smart way that takes calories into consideration.

4. Slow and steady weight loss. Depending on your starting weight, experts recommend losing weight at a rate of 1/2 to 2 pounds per week. Weight loss may be faster at the start of a program. Vtrim assigns a reduced calorie weight loss goal that will achieve a 1/2 -2 pound weight loss per week.  Slow, gradual and sustainable is the approach.

5.  A plan to keep the weight off after you have lost it. Because maintaining weight lost is often more challenging than losing weight, Vtrim offers a monthly maintenance program for graduates of our weight loss program.  Our goal is to partner with people on their weight management journey for as long as we are needed.

Check out what Vtrim has to offer on our website.  We start online classes every month.  We’d love to “see” you online!

Just recently the European Society of Cardiology stated that obesity is not just an important risk factor in heart disease, but more specifically for heart failure. At the 2009 Heart Failure Congress, researchers explained that obesity is at least as great a risk factor for heart failure as it is for heart attack or stroke, and that obesity doubles the risk for heart failure. Researchers confirmed a similar risk for diabetes and found that when the two risk factors are present together (obesity and diabetes), treatment becomes very difficult.

Weight loss will not only help lower BMI and risk of heart disease, stroke, and heart failure, it also helps to lower risk of developing diabetes or better manage diabetes in those diagnosed with the disease. Healthy habits and behaviors, as taught in Vtrim, all work together to help improve health risk factors and improve quality of life through less disease risk.

Over the years we have learned more and more about the benefits of following a healthy lifestyle.  Habits of exercising regularly, maintaining a healthy weight, eating plenty of fruits and vegetables, moderating alcohol intake, and not smoking are five health traits that are measured regularly by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). A recent study published in the American Journal of Medicine looked at changes in rates of people adhering to these five healthy behaviors over the past 20 years. During those years, rates of obesity rose, alcohol intake increased, physical activity decreased, and consumption of fruits and vegetables dropped. Smoking rates stayed about the same. The study comparisons showed that the rate of people adhering to all 5 healthy habits decreased from 15% to 8%.

It’s never too late to adopt healthy lifestyles. If one of these habits is something you have room for improvement on, start today to make a change. Small steps add up to big change over time. Take just 10 minutes for a walk today. Sprinkle some fruit in your morning cereal. Cut your portion size down. Pick just one small change to make today. You’ll be surprised at the different those little things make.

Want Vtrim to help you on your path to change? Check out our schedule of upcoming classes at www.uvm.edu/vtrim.

A recent study at Purdue University found that obesity contributes to
longer hospital stays. In the study, researchers found that hospital
stays for obese patients were on average 1.5 days longer than hospital
stays for patients of normal weight. Why? The researchers found the
greatest association with rates of disease in obese patients compared
to normal weight patients.

Obese patients had more incidence of diseases like hypertension, heart
disease, and diabetes, all of which can complicate health and needed
medical care. The study also showed that those patients who had been
obese the longest also had the longest hospital stays.

What does this mean for you? Now is the time to improve your health
risks through weight loss. Remember, a reduction of even 5-10% of
starting body weight yields significant reductions on disease risks.
Moving from an obese body mass index (BMI) to the overweight BMI range,
or from overweight BMI to normal BMI range can result in great health
savings. The sooner the better!

Check out our schedule of upcoming Vtrim classes if you are ready to improve your health.

www.uvm.edu/vtrim

For those of you that follow our blog, you know we are referring to weight, so becoming a successful loser is something to aspire to!  You all know by now that Vtrim is a research-based program.  That sounds credible but what the heck does it mean?  In a nut shell, we have combined research findings from obesity research done at the University of Vermont by Dr. Jean Harvey-Berino and research results from other universities to create a commercially available program that provides the best chance of success based on many research studies over many years.

One of our favorite sources of research data is the National Weight Control Registry.   This database was started in 1994 and is now 5000+ people deep.  The criterion for joining the Registry is maintenance of at least a 30 lb weight loss for at least one year.  Rena Wing, PhD and Jim Hill, PhD, two renowned obesity researchers, started this database in an effort to study people who have lost weight and kept it off.  People self select to join this database and it is not a randomized controlled study.  The researchers concede this limitation but the point is to gleen common characteristics of people who are keeping weight off long-term.  What are they doing and how can this knowledge help others who are attempting to maintain the weight they’ve worked so hard to lose?

This data provides a road map of what successful weight maintenance looks like and it is no cake walk, so to speak!

Common characteristics among successful weight losers:

1.  Diet AND exercise are key.  Successful weight maintenance requires both!  Successful losers lost weight with diet and exercise and they continue these behaviors in maintenance.

2.  Most follow a reduced-calorie, low fat diet with an average of 24% of calories coming from fat.  (Tracking fat helps you to meet your calorie goal since gram for gram fat has twice the calories of protein and carbohydrate.)

3.  Almost 80% eat a healthy breakfast everyday. (They get started on the right foot everyday.)

4.  75% weigh themselves at least once a week and many weigh daily.  (This allows you to correct for minor slips.)

4.  90% exercise an average of 1 hour per day.  The average exercise expenditure is the equivalent of walking 28 miles per week.  (Don’t be intimidated, see it as perspective on what you are currently doing.  Can you do more?)

5.  62% watch less than 10 hours of TV per week.  (No time for TV with all of that exercise!  Can’t give up TV, walk the treadmill while you watch.)

Vtrim will teach you the weight loss behaviors necessary to achieve these markers of long-term success. You too can be a successful loser and Vtrim can help!

The Vtrim Weight Management Program has been flourishing for the last 16 years in America’s healthiest city, Burlington, Vermont. Thousands of Vermonters have participated in Vtrim in both our research studies and our local commercial offering at the University of Vermont campus. Participants of Vtrim have found or rediscovered a healthier lifestyle through weight management, and for those living in Burlington, they now fit right in with the masses. Burlington has the largest percentage of people who claim to be in good or great health (92%). This vibrant city of 40,000 is also among the best in exercise and among the lowest in obesity, diabetes and other measures of poor health, according to a recent report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As Vtrim rolls out to a national online audience, it brings the Burlington, VT vibe of vitality through a healthier lifestyle to cities all across the country. We are proud to call Burlington, VT home, America’s Healthiest City!