weight loss programs

Good Sunday morning..it is o-dark-thirty and I am about ready to leave for a trip to Ohio. A medspa in Fremont will be opening a weight loss center and we are going out there to help them introduce this to their clients. I started thinking about some of my internal medicine patients, who, over the years, spent tens of thousands of dollars going to "inpatient" treatment programs for obesity. Some of the universities (Duke is one ) have programs where a patients actually travels to their facility for a week or more and is given classes about behavioral issues, dietary classes, etc.

I think it is GREAT when someone with weight issues takes "time off" to address this problem, as life-threatening medical problems can be a result of not addressing it. However, how "natural" is it to be taken away from the environment in which someone lives, works, plays, etc., and try to address the issues? My opinion is that people who have weight problems need to address the multiple issues involved while being in the environment that contributed to the overall problem. I think that alcohol and drug treatment programs are differeent in that it is a NECESSITY to get that person away from their environment. I think when it comes to being overweight or not pathologically obese, the person needs to learn how to be around that environment and still follow a plan. Clearly, anorexia nervosa and bulemia are ina completely different category as well as people who are over 100% ideal body weight. Inpatient treatment programs that take them out of their environment are probably necessary.