Supervised Lifestyle and Integrative Medicine (SLIM) Weight Loss
Your weight can affect your health and overall quality of life. If you’ve had a hard time losing weight on your own, talk to a doctor.
UC San Diego Health’s Supervised Lifestyle and Integrative Medicine (SLIM) Weight Loss Program can help you reach your weight loss goals with healthy habits and intensive lifestyle management.
SLIM is led by Deepa Sannidhi, MD, who is trained in weight management, lifestyle medicine and integrative health. Our Weight Management Program partnered with the UC San Diego Center for Integrative Medicine to create this novel program. It’s available only to UC San Diego Health patients upon referral.
This curriculum and website was made possible by support from:
The Ardmore Institute of Health Foundation
UCSD Department of Family Medicine Pilot Grant Fund
UCSD Institute of Public Health Pilot Grand Fund
Is This Program For Me?
Our SLIM Weight Loss Program is designed to help you find your healthy weight and meet your goals. It’s best suited for people who:
- Are prepared to adapt their lifestyle and nutrition habits
- Feel comfortable receiving medical care in a group setting
- Benefit from group accountability
- Feel comfortable discussing personal experiences
- Are focused on sustainable weight loss over time
- Can attend weekly sessions in the first two months, which space out over the length of the program
Program Benefits
- Individual and group appointments are carefully structured over 9-10 months to set you up for lifetime success.
- This program is medically supervised.
- It’s covered by insurance — an important benefit because group weight loss programs aren’t typically covered.
- This program doesn’t recommend a one-size-fits-all diet; instead you’ll get an individualized plan based on a comprehensive assessment of your lifestyle and goals.
How the SLIM Weight Loss Program Works
You have to referred by your UC San Diego Health provider to participate in this structured weight management program. It consists of in-person and virtual visits over 5-6 months— long enough to help you practice and sustain the healthy habits you learn to keep off the pounds you shed and improve your overall health.
You’ll meet with an experienced doctor who takes a comprehensive look at your medical history, lifestyle and needs and creates a personalized weight loss plan that works best for you. Your health assessment may include lab work and tests. You may be prescribed weight loss medications if needed.
Lifestyle medicine focuses on treating the most common chronic diseases by addressing diet, exercise, sleep, stress, risky substance avoidance and unhealthy relationships.
In addition to 5 one-on-one appointments, you’ll attend 12 group medical visits that are supervised by a physician and a health coach. The virtual visits cover diet, culinary classes, exercise, sleep, stress, mindfulness, and most importantly, behavior change techniques, including cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).
These interactive group sessions provide a safe and supportive environment to share your experiences and acquire long-term skills to manage your weight and improve your overall health. At the end of each session, your doctor may adjust medications or provide other care.
Follow Up With Longer-Term Weight Maintenance Plans
Once you finish our medical supervised SLIM Weight Loss Program, you can continue working with our highly trained staff to maintain your healthy weight.
Through our weekly and monthly weight management classes, you can practice the nutrition habits, physical activity and lifestyle skills over and over so that your habits become second nature. This will help increase your chances of long-term success and enable you to continue your health management journey on your own.
Program Costs and Insurance
Our medically supervised SLIM program is covered by insurance. We’ll bill your insurer directly, but you may be responsible for co-pays, depending on your plan.
You may be able to use your employer-provided flexible spending account (FSA) or health savings account (HSA) to help pay for some expenses with pretax dollars.
Questions?
If you have any questions about the SLIM program or would like more information, please reach out to us:
Phone: 858-249-6890
Fax: 858-732-0863
Email: weightmanagement@health.ucsd.edu