According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2016), more than one-third or roughly 36.5% of U.S. adults are obese. In 2015 there were more than three quarters of Veterans, who received care in different VA facilities, considered to be overweight or obese (Rogers, 2013). The way the Miami VA addresses overweight and obese Veterans is by providing programs such as Management of Overweight / Obese Veterans Everywhere (MOVE). MOVE is an outpatient weight management health promotion program that focuses on health and wellness through healthy eating, physical activity, and behavior change. The program is offered to Veterans who are overweight or obese with a Body Mass Index (BMI) above 30. Veterans also qualify if they have diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, metabolic syndrome as well as any BMI with a waist circumference of > 40 inches for men or 35 inches for women (Rogers, 2013). MOVE is a 16-week weight management program which involves an interdisciplinary team including members from psychology, physical therapy, endocrinology and a …show more content…
Each week builds on education materials from prior weeks. The group is lead through decisional balance exercises. For instance, asking the Veterans to give positive reasons to lose weight and writing it down on the board with a separate column listing the hard and unpleasant things about losing weight. The dietitian notes the process and how the group had easier time generating first list; yet despite clear benefits, weight management is a struggle. The effectiveness of Motivational Interviewing (MI) relies on allowing the patients to discover their own reasons and determination to change a behavior. Thus, allowing the Veterans to weight decisions is a great strategy used to promote healthy change. Solutions and ideas that are generated by the group are much more powerful than those that are