“Overweight and obesity are rampant, affecting 97 million adults in the United States. The problem is complex, involving genetic, metabolic, physiological, cultural, social, and behavioral factors. On the surface, the solution seems straightforward — decrease the number of calories consumed, and increase the number of calories used, and weight loss will result. However, as one begins to examine the approach to weight management more closely, it becomes clear that our current interventions are often unsatisfactory…”

These are the words of Michelle May, M.D., author of the award winning “Am I Hungry? What To Do When Diets Don’t Work.” May, who herself struggled with weight loss, is the co-developer of Am I Hungry?™, a multidimensional weight management program she created with psychologist Lisa Galper, Psy.D., and Janet Carr, a registered dietician and exercise expert.

On Thursday, Oct. 6, at the Ohio University Inn, May will address a group of health professionals — physicians, dietitians, nurses, social workers, counselors, certified health educators — from across Southeastern Ohio on obesity and weight management.

“If diets work, why do we have an obesity epidemic?” asks May. “But it isn’t that diets don’t work, it’s being able to sustain them over the long haul of maintaining weight loss. People vacillate being on and off diets. That’s the problem for the majority of people.”

“I realized that I wasn’t able to manage my weight successfully. It wasn’t that something was wrong with me or my patients. It dawned on me that even the most accomplished and disciplined people were not able to successfully lose weight.”

May, a board certified family physician and the past president of the Arizona Academy of Family Physicians, began to rethink why certain people were able to maintain healthy weights without dieting.

“We live in a society where food is so abundant that many people have lost the ability to realize how to eat to meet their bodies’ needs. People who are successful at managing their weight do it because they have intuitively realized when to eat and when to stop. They eat when they’re hungry and not to meet other needs.”

Her Am I Hungry?™ seminar is designed to help physicians and other health professionals look at weight management and the problem of overeating from a different perspective. May’s approach combines expertise in the medical, nutritional and behavior aspects of weight management into an intuitive practical approach to weight management — retraining yourself to eat when your body is hungry, not in response to emotional or environmental triggers that motivate you to eat.

“I try to move the weight-loss paradigm away form excessive dieting and exercise to a more sustainable, realistic approach that people can fit within their lifestyles.

“Health-care professionals can assist this process by empowering individuals to become the authority on meeting their needs and helping them learn to trust their own bodies. They are in a unique position to help patients identify medical and physical obstacles.

 “The reality is that successful weight management requires a change from a ‘dieter’s mindset’ to building the necessary skills and support to ‘normalize’ eating. If we can teach people skills and tools instead of rules, in the long run they will be successful at weight management.”

“Her program looks at the individual,” says Ruth Dudding, Athens City County Health Department health educator. “It’s not a one-size-fits-all approach. It’s individualized and personal.”

Dudding represents one in the group of the sponsors of May’s seminar, which includes the health departments of Washington and Meigs counties, the American Cancer Society, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Ohio Department of Health and Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine.

Southeastern Ohio, as the rest of Ohio and the nation, has a weight problem. Dudding says May’s multidimensional message fits right in with what health professionals from the three county health departments are trying to achieve.

“We are finding that the best approach to promoting change is to use a multidimensional approach,” says Dudding.

The three county health departments’ efforts to fight obesity are part of the Ohio Department of Health’s initiative to promote cardiovascular health.

“We want to make sure that messages about health are properly coordinated and conveyed so that people can make the best and most informed decisions, particularly in regards to eating and weight management,” says Dudding. “We are hoping to support and build on the foundation of good messages and information that are already provided by area health professionals.

“May is passionate about her message. She’s converted to this lifestyle, and she’s excited about conveying the information so that others can benefit from it as well.”

“We have to be willing to explore new and different ideas and approaches,” says May, “if we want to be able to solve the problem of overeating and obesity.”