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The Medical Program at the Weight Management Clinic is a two-year, structured program designed to help you manage obesity and improve your health.
It includes three phases:
- Active
- Maintenance
- Consolidation
The program focuses on healthy habits, meal planning, physical activity and problem-solving to support lasting change.
Goals
The goals of the medical program are to help you:
Identify and change
patterns of behaviour that contribute to weight gain.
Understand
why it’s hard to change behaviours
Be more aware
of reasons why you eat other than hunger
Implement skills
in meal planning and journaling
Explore the benefits
of physical activity
Problem-solve
around food, exercise, stress and time management
Program phases
Active phase (zero to six months)
The Active Phase includes 24 weekly group sessions, each lasting about 90 minutes. These sessions are led by a registered dietitian, social worker or behaviour specialist, and exercise specialist. You will also receive regular monitoring from a physician who specializes in obesity medicine.
Before starting, you will need blood work and an electrocardiogram. Blood tests will be repeated during the program to track your progress. Depending on your needs, you may complete six to 12 weeks of a medically supervised meal replacement plan (Optifast 900®). Throughout this phase, we monitor changes in weight and health measures such as blood pressure, blood glucose, cholesterol, mobility, and quality of life.
Maintenance phase (six to 12 months)
During the maintenance phase, you continue building healthy habits and receive ongoing support. You can attend group sessions and follow up with your clinic physician to review progress and address any challenges. The focus is on maintaining the changes you made during the Active Phase and reinforcing skills for long-term success.
Consolidation phase (12 to 24 months)
In the consolidation phase, you begin transitioning back to community-based support for ongoing weight management. You can still attend support groups and follow up with the clinic physician. This phase helps you stay connected while preparing for independent management of your health.
To learn more about the medical program please visit the Ontario Bariatric Network.
Referrals
You can be referred to the Weight Management Clinic by a health-care provider, or you can refer yourself.