Dr. Jim Hill, Dr. Holly Wyatt and Ms. Bonnie Jortberg developed the Colorado Weigh® Program to provide weight management at an affordable price to the Denver/Boulder Metropolitan area. The program was based on previous research studies and treatment programs at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. In developing the Colorado Weigh®, we anticipated that studies such as the Diabetes Prevention Program would clearly demonstrate the effectiveness of long-term weight loss on progress and management of type 2 diabetes and other obesity-associated co-morbidities. We further anticipated that the need and demand for effective weight management programs that could be delivered within the current health care environment and within communities across the country would continue to grow.

The Colorado Weigh® was developed as a cognitive-behavioral program, with the belief that knowledge and skill to produce weight loss is different than knowledge and skill to keep the weight off. This thinking is heavily influenced by research we have conducted with the National Weight Control Registry (NWCR), a registry of over 3000 individuals who have succeeded at long-term weight management. These individuals have lost an average of 67 pounds and kept it off an average of 6 years. We found that while there is very little similarity in how NWCR participants lost weight, there is a great deal of similarity in how they keep their weight off long-term. The only similarity in weight loss was that over 90% of NWCR participants used both diet and physical activity to lose weight. There was little similarity in the type of diet or the type of physical activity used for weight loss.

In contrast, we have found 4 common behaviors among NWCR individuals in how they maintain weight loss (Ann Rev Nutr. 2001;21:323-41). These are:

1) Eating a diet low in fat (24%) and high in carbohydrate
2) Weighing themselves at least once/week
3) Eating breakfast 7 days/week
4) High levels (about 1 hour/day) of physical activity.

These common behaviors along with other behavioral research findings from the NWCR study group have been incorporated into the Colorado Weigh® Weight loss program. The NWCR group represents what has worked in the “real world” for many individuals and illustrates behaviors that are common to successful weight loss maintainers outside of a University research setting. This research has heavily influenced the design of the Colorado Weigh® Curriculum and new findings from this successful group are regularly incorporated into the curriculum.

The Colorado Weigh® Curriculum was also influenced by the lifestyle intervention used in the Diabetes Prevention Program lifestyle intervention treatment arm. A fat gram budget and increasing lifestyle physical activity were key features of the DPP and both were incorporated into the Colorado Weigh® program as tactics to decrease energy intake and increase energy expenditure.

The program is periodically updated to reflect the latest scientific findings about weight loss and obesity prevention. Participant results are captured in a central database and analyzed by university researchers, which allows the program to be continually refined.