WESTMINSTER, Colo. (CBS4)– A young father from Arvada is about 100 pounds lighter and on the path to losing even more weight. He did not try the latest fad diet, instead he followed a very personal plan he created with his doctor.
(credit: Joshua Calderon)
There are no gimmicks. It uses every weight loss tool available and his primary care doctor is with him all the way.
(credit: Joshua Calderon)
“My peak weight … I got up to like 387 pounds,” Joshua Calderon told CBS4 Health Specialist Kathy Walsh.
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Calderon tried to lose weight.
“Any fad diet, you name it,” he said. “You know, once you stop them you gain the weight back right away.”
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Calderon was frustrated and embarrassed.
“Got to a point where I no longer liked seeing pictures of myself,” he explained.
In October 2018, he went to his doctor, Erik Kramer, for help. A program called “PATHWEIGH” kept him coming back.
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“How are things going since we last saw you?” Kramer asked Calderon at a recent appointment.
The 37-year-old is a new man.
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“You’re at your lowest weight in the last five years,” said Kramer.
“PATHWEIGH” is personalized care. Calderon is taking two appetite suppressants, using an app to count calories and exercising. Kramer strategizes with him every two months.
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“It is absolutely that long-term relationship that allows patients to be successful,” said endocrinologist Dr. Leigh Perreault.
Kramer and Perreault are co-creators of PATHWEIGH. It is a pilot study at UCHealth Family Medicine Westminster.
Joshua Calderon (credit: CBS)
Researchers compared their patient results with those of a clinic using usual lifestyle advice.
“We found that we were getting three times the amount of weight loss here,” said Perreault.
(credit: Joshua Calderon)
In 15 months, Calderon has lost 101 pounds.
“Where I had got to and where I am now is just amazing,” he said.
Calderon says he has about 70 pounds to go.
With lifestyle changes and his doctor/coach, he’s confident he’ll keep losing and loving it.
UCHealth now plans to institute the PATHWEIGH program in all 58 of its family medicine practices.
Eventually, through electronic medical records, the goal is to collect data to help doctors know which approaches are likely to produce the most weight loss and maintenance for individual patients.
