Theodore B. VanItallie Center for Nutrition and Weight Management

Our goals are two-fold: weight loss for the short term and weight maintenance for the long term. Our weight loss treatments are all medically based on need, so EKGs, lab work and some physicians visits are scheduled on an individual basis. However, once each week, all patients will have their blood pressure checked and be given the opportunity to speak with a clinical assistant, nurse or dietitian. Each patient will also participate in a weekly group class and see the physician no less than monthly.

Our treatments for weight loss are effective, but purposefully do not result in rapid weight loss. Whether you lose the weight with the help of liquid formula, regular food, surgery or medication, we will monitor you to ensure that you lose as much fat as possible, but not at the expense of lean tissue such as skeletal muscle, the heart, the liver and the skin. We also promote better health and nutrition through workshops on low-fat cooking, exercise, stress reduction and much more.

Our Center was named for Dr. Theodore B. VanItallie, the founder of our Obesity Research Center, which is one of four federally funded centers for investigation into the causes and treatment of obesity in the United States. World renowned as a nutrition and weight control scientist, he honors us with the use of his name, and we hope to honor him by helping you achieve your weight and health objectives.

More information can be found at http://www.WeHealNewYork.org

F. Xavier Pi-Sunyer, M.D.

F. Xavier Pi-Sunyer, M.D. is Director of the Obesity Research Center and Chief of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Nutrition at St. Luke's-Hospital Center, and Professor of Medicine at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York. Dr. Pi-Sunyer is also Director of the Joslin Center for Diabetes at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital. He is a Senior Attending Physician at St. Luke's-Roosevelt and at Presbyterian Hospitals and a Visiting Physician at the Rockefeller University Hospital. Dr. Pi-Sunyer is also Professor of Applied Physiology at Columbia Teachers College and on the faculty of the Institute of Human Nutrition at Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons.

His research interests are in the hormonal control of carbohydrate metabolism, diabetes mellitus. obesity and food intake regulation. He has over 450 publications in these areas and two books. Dr. Pi-Sunyer is a past president of the American Diabetes Association, of the American Society for Clinical Nutrition, and of the North American Association for the Study of Obesity. He is a Councellor of the Society of Experimental Biology and Medicine. He has been honored as a Fellow of the Fogarty International Center of the National Institutes of Health. He serves on the NIDDK Task Force for the Prevention and Treatment of Obesity and has been a member of numerous NIH study sections and review groups. He is presently Chairman of the National Heart and Lung Institute Task Force on the Treatment of Obesity. He is a member of the New York State Health Research Council. He is Editor-in-Chief of Obesity Research and Associate Editor of the International Journal of Obesity. He holds a B.A. from Oberlin College, and M.D. from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, and an M.P.H. from Harvard University.

Send comments or questions to
C.O.R.E. Program Director Dr. Holly Wyatt.