Virtual Lifestyle Management

The Grunberger Diabetes Institute offers the ONLY research-proven program that enhances healthcare-provided weight management: Virtual Lifestyle Management for Weight Loss.

Here's how it works: you communicate with your health care provider with a computer-based program that allows you to track your progress and gain insight and understanding through learning modules.

What you need:

• A desire for long-term weight loss
• Understanding of how food plays a role in your weight
• A computer with internet access

What you get:

• Physical exam
• Access to the computer program with automatic feed to a Grunberger Diabetes Institute health care provider
• Access to learning modules
• In-office consultation
• Individualized diet plan

Patients on the year-long Virtual Lifestyle Management service work through 16 weekly and 8 monthly lessons that provide the knowledge, skills and encouragement necessary to make positive change.

Throughout the program, patients are asked to plan their activities using a patent-pending drag-and-drop planning calendar. Daily emails remind patients about planned activities and aid in tracking activities.

Using the Virtual Lifestyle Management service is simple and intuitive. About five minutes per day and 30 minutes once a week is all the time needed to complete lessons, to reflect and to plan the next week's activities.

The program was created by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and is supported by the National Institutes of Health. It's cutting-edge technology is the ONLY successful healthcare-provider weight management program proven successful by research. Web-based learning and activity tracking helps keep patients motivated and improves the efficiency of office visits. This all-inclusive program costs just a few hundred dollars per year and offers lasting benefits.

Call the Grunberger Diabetes Institute at 248-335-7740 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Here are a few tips that you can put to use today to help manage your diabetes and work on weight management:

Balance Your Food Intake and Your Activity
(adapted from the U.S. Surgeon General Report on Overweight and Obesity)
Reducing your calorie intake by 150 calories a day, along with participating in moderate activity, could double your weight loss and is equivalent to approximately

• 10 pounds in 6 months and 20 pounds in 1 year.
• One small chocolate chip cookie (50 calories) is equivalent to walking briskly for 10 minutes.
• The difference between a large gourmet chocolate chip cookie and a small chocolate chip cookie could be about 40 minutes of raking leaves (200 calories).
• One hour of walking at a moderate pace (20 min/mile) uses about the same amount of energy that is in one jelly filled doughnut (300 calories).
• A fast food "meal" containing a double patty cheeseburger, extra-large fries and a 24 oz. soft drink is equal to running 2½ hours at a 10 min/mile pace (1500 calories).

Diet/Nutrition

Diet remains by far the most important aspect of diabetes treatment. Because at least 90% of patients with type 2 diabetes are overweight or obese, most diets need to be also weight-losing ones (usually aimed at 1/2 - 1 lb. weight loss each week).

However, even patients with type 1 diabetes and non-obese people with type 2 diabetes have to stay on proper diet for life. Proper nutrition, regular meal-time schedules, adequate supply of necessary nutrients, vitamins and minerals have to be matched with the patient's overall health status, age, medications, work activity and schedule, cultural and social backgrounds and habits, etc.

Physical Activity/Exercise
Physical activity goes hand in hand with diet as the cornerstone of diabetes management.

Just as dietary advice, proper physical activity education needs to take into account patient's age, physical status, other illnesses, medications patient is taking, daily schedule, etc., etc. It needs to be given by personnel experienced in dealing with the effects of exercise on blood sugar levels, especially in those on insulin or other medications capable of lowering glucose levels below normal.

To achieve the desired effects, patients should exercise five to seven times per week at about 60 to 75% maximum intensity for about 45-60 minutes each time. Exercise should include both aerobic (jogging, brisk walking, swimming, biking) and anaerobic (strengthening, weight lifting) types of activity. Proper stretching, warming up and cooling down is also essential in order to assure benefits of exercise and to avoid injuries.

Diabetes Care
The overriding principle is to teach patients how to live "with" their diabetes rather than "for" diabetes.

We emphasize teaching patients the latest management techniques, whether in nutrition, weight loss, physical activity, medications, blood glucose monitoring, or insulin delivery. We know that diabetes "takes no vacation" and, therefore, we give our patients the tools they need to handle any situation they might encounter in their daily lives.