Counseling Overweight Adults
Dr. Robert Kushner
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A Conversation with Robert F. Kushner M.D. 1) Q: What is the Lifestyle Patterns Approach? A: The Lifestyle Patterns approach is a targeted weight management program designed to help overweight clients identify and learn to manage their eating, exercise and coping lifestyle patterns that have caused weight gain. 2) Q: How did you develop the Lifestyle Patterns Approach? A: I have been helping patients lose weight for over two decades. Over the years, I had observed that individuals would go on a diet and lose weight but their success would only last so long before they fell back into their old patterns or habits and re-gained the weight. I turned my focus to identifying the patterns that people kept falling back into that caused weight gain and then helping people change their weight gaining patterns into weight losing patterns. This led to the publication of the Personality Type Diet in 2003. Once I started giving educational programs to professionals about this approach, I received positive reactions and interest to use this approach with their own patients. This led to the American Dietetic Association’s interest in publishing this book for professionals. 3) Q: How is this approach different than other diets? A: This is not one-size-fits-all. It’s an individualized approach that targets each person’s eating, exercise and coping patterns that have fed an overweight lifestyle. It’s also not just about food – or not just about food and exercise. There is a third dimension to this program, coping, which most diets ignore. Through our research, we have found that the coping patterns are some of the most common problems dieters deal with that keep derailing their success. 4) Q: Do you have research that supports your program? A: Although I developed this approach empirically, it is founded on principles, observations and research obtained from behavioral and medical literature. The Lifestyle Patterns Approach has also been systematically studied. Validation of the Lifestyle Patterns quiz was done in 2002. In 2003, a prevalence study was completed which showed that the top 3 endorsed patterns were all coping patterns (People Pleaser, Persistent Procrastinator and Overreaching Achiever). In a 12 month prospective study where the Lifestyle Patterns Approach was used in a group format, average weight loss ranged from 5.5 % to 6.6 %. I am currently involved in studying a sample of 500,000 + individuals who completed the online version of the Lifestyle Patterns Quiz and in the process of writing up and publishing the findings. 5) Q: How does pattern recognition change the way clinicians counsel overweight patients? What types of clinicians should use this book? A: The key to effective counseling is being able to personalize a program to meet the needs of each client. The Lifestyle Patterns Quiz and pattern-specific handouts allows the clinician to quickly individualize care and to administer comprehensive care that addresses all 3 dimensions. Whether they’re registered dietitians, nurse practitioners, nurses, physicians, health psychologists or fitness professionals, weight management clinicians will have the information they need to counsel patients in all 3 dimensions of the program: eating, exercise and coping. The pattern scoring method also gives clinicians another objective way to monitor progress – in addition to monitoring weight. 6) Q: What can someone do if they’re interested in learning more about the Lifestyle Patterns approach? A: For more information, they can check out the book’s website: www.counselingoverweightadults.com. This website gives information regarding upcoming conferences on the Lifestyle Patterns Approach, links to contact me and to purchase this new book for professionals or the consumer title, Dr. Kushner’s Personality Type Diet. They can also check out the American Dietetic Association website which sells the book, www.eatright.org. COUNSELING OVERWEIGHT ADULTS: The Lifestyle Patterns Approach and Toolkit By Robert F. Kushner, M.D., Nancy Kushner, M.S.N., R.N. and Dawn Jackson Blatner, R.D. ISBN: 978-0-88091-422-2 American Dietetic Association Publication, September, 2008 |
Press KitFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Robert Kushner, M.D., 312-503-6817 rkushner@northwestern.edu www.counselingoverweightadults.com PATTERN RECOGNITION KEY TO NEW WEIGHT LOSS COUNSELING APPROACH “The basis for this counseling approach is that each person has his or her own lifestyle habits that have contributed to weight gain over time. The practitioner identifies the different patterns exhibited by a client and individualizes the counseling to match client’s habits.” —Rebecca S. Reeves, DrPH, RD, FADA, President, American Dietetic Association, 2005-2006 Counseling Overweight Adults: The Lifestyle Patterns Approach and Toolkit by Robert F. Kushner, M.D., Nancy Kushner, M.S.N., R.N. and Dawn Jackson Blatner, R.D. Clinicians use pattern recognition to help patients with diabetes manage their blood sugar patterns or patients with asthma manage their breathing patterns. With the recent publication of COUNSELING OVERWEIGHT ADULTS: The Lifestyle Patterns Approach and Toolkit (American Dietetic Association; September, 2008) pattern recognition will now be available for clinicians to help overweight clients lose weight and adopt healthier lifestyle habits. Through taking a 50 question quick quiz (either on the computer or paper), patients obtain a complete profile of their eating, exercise and coping lifestyle patterns that have caused weight gain. They find out, for example, if their eating pattern is a Meal Skipper, a Nighttime Nibbler or a Hearty Portioner, if their exercise pattern is a Couch Champion, an All-or-Nothing Doer or a Tender Bender or if their coping pattern is a People Pleaser, a Procrastinator or an Unrealistic Achiever. Based upon obesity expert Dr. Robert Kushner’s life work, the Lifestyle Patterns Approach has been developed to offer overweight individuals a more targeted and patient-centered process for losing weight. All of the lifestyle-pattern targeted treatment strategies used reflect evidence-based recommendations for weight loss and behavior change. COUNSELING OVERWEIGHT ADULTS and its accompanying CD-ROM offer weight-management clinicians new tools and resources designed to help identify and overcome their patient’s weight loss obstacles through using an interactive Lifestyle Patterns Quiz, eating, exercise and coping patterns profile graphs, pattern-specific teaching handouts and helpful forms. The lifestyle pattern profile graphs showcase a client’s quiz results. The lifestyle patterns with the highest scores are the patterns that have had the greatest influence on weight gain and the ones clinicians and clients will want to target. COUNSELING OVERWEIGHT ADULTS offers clinicians a complete program to target their client’s problem behaviors along with pattern-specific patient teaching handouts to help clients take control of these behaviors. The overall goal is to help clients change their weight-gaining patterns into weight-losing habits. Clients are encouraged to re-take the Lifestyle Patterns quiz at different points in the program to see their pattern scores decrease as they lose weight. This electronic scoring option offers clinicians another objective way to measure patient progress. Pattern recognition is becoming increasingly important in epidemiological research and is linked to health outcomes. COUNSELING OVERWEIGHT ADULTS offers weight loss counselors an innovative way to personalize care and improve weight loss outcomes. ABOUT THE AUTHORS: Robert F. Kushner, M.D. is Clinical Director of the Northwestern Comprehensive Center on Obesity in Chicago, Professor of Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Past President of The Obesity Society, author of over 140 scientific articles on obesity and nutrition, author of Dr. Kushner’s Personality Type Diet and Fitness Unleashed: A Dog and Owner’s Guide to Losing Weight and Gaining Health Together, on the editorial board for Obesity, Obesity Management and the Journal of the American Dietetic Association and editor of the American Medical Association’s Obesity Primer for Physicians. Nancy Kushner, M.S.N., R. N. is a nurse practitioner, health writer, co-author of Dr. Kushner’s Personality Type Diet and since 2004, she has been Health Content Editor of diet.com. Dawn Jackson Blatner, R.D. has 10 years experience working as a registered dietitian with overweight clients and is a spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association. She has authored articles in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association and Obesity, is a nutrition expert on the advisory board of Fitness magazine, is a freelance writer and author of The Flexitarian Diet (McGraw Hill, 2008) and writes a food and nutrition blog for USA Today. Ms. Blatner is an instructor at The Chopping Block Cooking School in Chicago and the dietitian for Lifetimetv.com. COUNSELING OVERWEIGHT ADULTS: The Lifestyle Patterns Approach and Toolkit By Robert F. Kushner, M.D., Nancy Kushner, M.S.N., R.N. and Dawn Jackson Blatner, R.D. ISBN: 978-0-88091-422-2 American Dietetic Association Publication, September, 2008 |
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