About ILWM

The Institute of Lifestyle and Weight Management is the premier medically-supervised weight loss center featuring an innovative approach for achieving rapid results while simultaneously laying the groundwork for long-term sustainable changes in a controlled and immersive environment. ILWM offers both state-of-the-art and award-winning Residential and Out-Patient Programs.

About the ILWM Residential Program

ILWM’s Residential Program is not like other ‘traditional’ residential programs and differs greatly from them in philosophy, level of personalization, weight loss approach, and program design.

Other residential weight loss centers are typically affiliated with hospital systems or exclusive health spas. As a result, the programs are run either like sterile, hospital-like clinical assembly line operations where participants are ushered into the program several hundred at a time or like lush oases of luxury that run short on science and medicine. Either approach is less-than optimal and significantly less effective than they should be. In fact, often the goal is not to effect long-term weight loss, but to create return customers. At ILWM, we provide a warm, welcoming environment in which you can feel at home while making the lifestyle changes necessary to lose weight and become more healthy.

Personalization and Emotional Support
At ILWM, the Residential Weight Loss Program was designed to be comprehensive and personal. The individual needs of each member are analyzed and addressed. Emotional support, a much-overlooked component of any lifestyle modification program, is a cornerstone of the ILWM approach—members are not anonymous entities flowing through a standardized program, but are unique individuals with different needs, situations, personalities, and motivators. ILWM has created a warm, encouraging, and nurturing environment in which to learn, experience, and prosper.

Family-Oriented Environment
ILWM doesn’t admit people by the hundreds: admittance is limited to ten to maintain the high quality experience. ILWM participants experience smaller class sizes, greater caregiver attention, and increased emotional support. No one is anonymous at ILWM—we will get to know you as a person, not as a patient, and our talented team of caregivers establish strong emotional bonds with you. ILWM’s family-oriented environment offers warmth and encouragement to you when you most need it. You’ll feel at home while changing your life.

Immersive Environment
Although classroom time is important, it is not enough to simply learn and memorize theories and knowledge. Hands-on experience is essential to your success. Lectures are reinforced by workshops. Unlike most other programs, participants spend considerable time in the gym under supervision; personal training and gym time are integral parts of the program, not expensive add-ons. Knowledge of nutrition and exercise theory is important, but it is not enough by itself—the self-knowledge gained at ILWM is what can make the difference between long-term weight loss and just another temporary solution.

Daily Interaction
Oftentimes, hospital-based programs offer very limited contact with the professional caregivers and rely on time spent with less-experienced lower-level contractors. Most programs allocate one meeting with each type of caregiver per week or less. At ILWM, participants have daily interactions with physicians, dietitians, exercise physiologists, psychologists, and counselors. Encounters with our professional staff are unlimited, not rationed. Therefore, you can receive more of what help you need. Most programs offer only one personal training session, usually done to prompt you to purchase additional personal training sessions at an additional cost—ILWM includes up to four personal training sessions per day, at no additional charge. At ILWM, your home for weight loss, you can get the help you need as an individual, and not a cookie-cutter approach to health care.

One and Done
Over half of all participants in traditional residential weight loss programs repeat the program at least once. At ILWM, we are not trying to create return customers. Our aim is to help you to help yourself. We will instill what you need to lose the weight and keep it off in the long term. Behavior modification is the ultimate goal—you will learn to eat right and exercise right. This behavior is actively reinforced through repetition and constant reinforcement. Ultimately, participants learn to be self-sufficient and remain accountable to themselves as they move forward.

A Spoonful of Splenda...
Losing weight often feels like an endless chore, which is one reason why most programs fail. ILWM takes an approach that emphasizes fun. Oftentimes, classes and workshops can feel like endless drudgery. Not so at ILWM, where all activities are fun as well as educational. Furthermore, ILWM classes seek to create a healthy mind as well as a healthy body. Classes on such things as journal keeping, public speaking, and even a reading group help to maintain the healthy mind/body balance. If you are having fun and enjoying yourself, you can accomplish more.

Comprehensive Approach
The ILWM approach to weight loss is the most comprehensive in the marketplace. All relevant aspects of weight loss are addressed. In addition to eating right and exercising, contributing factors such as medical, behavioral, psychological, and emotional root causes are identified and addressed. These factors can aggravate or trigger bad eating and exercising choices, and must be addressed for the program to be effective. Stress and time management as well as situational eating strategies are studied and practiced. At ILWM, your home for weight loss, we use a multifactorial approach to address the issue from several different directions, thereby increasing your chances of long-term success.

Our Dualistic Philosophy

ILWM has a dualistic philosophy of weight loss, one designed to recognize and leverage human nature as a driving force in your success. In the traditional “Old World” thinking of the diet industry, you can either achieve rapid, short-term results or sustainable long-term results.

The ILWM Dualistic Philosophy believes that you can achieve BOTH rapid, short-term results AND sustainable, long-term results from the same program at the same time.

Short-term, rapid results are powerfully beneficial if they are attained intelligently and if they are designed as stepping-stones toward major lifestyle change. After all, the most powerful driver of weight loss is. . . WEIGHT LOSS ITSELF! Success breeds further success. Our weight loss programs help individuals achieve quick results in a way that motivates them long enough to make sustainable life changes and learn how to incorporate new ways of thinking and new approaches into their life.

Our unique level of personalization and customization

• At ILWM, we recognize that you unquestionably desire a positive and personalized experience when you participate in a weight loss program—especially one as comprehensive as a residential program.
• The ILWM Residential program differs greatly from other programs in its approach. We believe that the level of success our members have with our program directly correlates to the level of personalization they receive while on-site at ILWM.
• A smaller, warmer, and more intimate program, ILWM’s Residential program is truly customized for each participant, unlike the larger, hospital-based programs that offer one-solution-fits-all programs.
• Whether you need to lose 30 or 300 pounds, whether you’re diabetic or an emotional eater, whether you have limiting physical conditions, are suffering from a co-morbid condition such as heart disease or hypertension, or are struggling with binge eating, ILWM’s Residential program will customize a curriculum designed to meet your needs and goals, and will make optimal use of the time you spend on campus.
• A deeply personalized program is not only engaging, but is one that can create a life-changing event for you. Our clients find their experience to be an inherently personal one, where they are engaged on emotional, physical, intellectual and even spiritual levels.

Our approach and program design

Our 7 Essential Elements™ for Sustainable Living

The Institute of Lifestyle & Weight Management (ILWM) provides an innovative solution to the problem of overweight and obesity and associated conditions through its system of 7 Essential Elements™ for Sustainable Living. Together, the 7 Essential Elements™ create a powerful combination of positive health practices that empower individuals to manage their weight, change their eating, exercise and lifestyle habits and live healthier lives.

The basic framework underpinning our approach to weight management is based on the assumption that our lives are too dynamic, too busy, too hectic, and the world is too complex to rely on the solutions of yesterday. The 7 Essential Elements™ for Sustainable Living is an innovative approach to living well in today’s world.

Medical Checkups
Our extensive Medical Checkups ensure proper management of each member’s personal health program. Overweight and obesity are often associated with hypertension, diabetes and other disease—conditions that can only be detected and treated through physical exams and cutting-edge diagnostic tests. Checkups also give members regular opportunities to talk privately with their physician. Each member will receive a comprehensive initial assessment, which includes a stress test-and weekly follow-up consultations.

New Directions
New Directions is a radically new way of thinking, an essential element that helps ILWM members to find a unique focal point for their lives, one that was previously missing. New Directions helps you adapt to unfolding circumstances, bounce back from adverse life events, and live a more sustainable life. By finding a new direction and aligning a lifestyle and weight management program around it, you can make the large-scale changes needed to reach the desired future you dream about.

Psychological Solutions
Psychological Solutions give participants the tools to manage his or her environment physically, mentally, and socially through face-to-face meetings with a doctoral-level clinical psychologist with training in a wide variety of theoretical orientations and proficiency in addressing a multitude of emotional and behavioral matters. Consultations with our psychologist (and subsequent follow ups) serve as key drivers of program customization and are critical elements to the program’s success.

Exercise Offerings
Exercise helps keep our heart healthy and our body in optimal physical condition. The benefits of a sound exercise program, if consistently adhered to, are unmistakable. Each member will follow an exercise prescription designed specifically for them based on current health conditions. Extensive daily one-on-one personal training is included in the program.

Nutritional Consults
Our approach to proper nutrition teaches not only what we should eat, but provides daily practices and tools that encourage us to do so: mind-set modifications, nutritious menus, cooking techniques, time management tips, and even supermarket shopping tips. Our state-of-the-art demonstration kitchen is the ideal environment in which to learn about and internalize healthy dietary practices. Residential clients are encouraged to meet with ILWM dietitians on a daily basis while on site.

Educational Workshops
Our Educational approach plays a vital role in the effectiveness of consistent and meaningful behavior modification. ILWM empowers members through classes, lectures, and one-on-one consultations to give them the self confidence and knowledge to make informed healthcare decisions and to take greater control of their weight and their lives.

The Seventh Element: Sustainable Changes
Sustainable Changes is an extremely powerful behavioral program because it is a sound eclectic model that is specifically designed for to meet the challenges we face everyday. It is eclectic because no single theory explains, predicts for, or completely helps everybody. It also allows room for new methods to quickly be incorporated into the model as new data emerges and unfolding events alter our way of life. Upon arrival, our staff psychologist conducts an intake assessment to determine the optimal mix of behavioral classes, workshops, and counseling that would best benefit the participant; the assessment is based on the personal characteristics, personal history, experiences, needs, and objectives of the participant. The psychologist’s recommendations are then be combined with the participant’s preference of classes, workshops, and ILWM’s core educational offerings to develop a curriculum that is like a finely-stitched patchwork quilt. The participant is regularly assessed to account for progress made, and the curriculum is modified accordingly throughout the duration of the program. ILWM’s Progress Feedback Loop ensures that the optimal experiences are delivered at the appropriate time, maximizing the impact of the ILWM Residential experience. Because this unique curriculum draws on a broad range of perspectives and theories, and is tailored specifically to the member’s needs, the likelihood of its effectiveness once the member has left ILWM is much higher than if it were a “cookie-cutter” program.

Our Staff

The staff at ILWM's Residential Weight Loss Program is comprised of a number of different people from a wide variety of backgrounds and skill sets. Click here to learn more about our staff.