Medical University of South Carolina Wellness Center, Charleston, SC

The Medical University of South Carolina Wellness Center Healthy Charleston Challenge (HCC) is a 12-week lifestyle change program for chronic disease prevention and weight reduction in the form of a team competition. The program is designed to increase physical activity and empower participants by providing skills, professional guidance and accountability for developing healthy lifestyle habits.

Health professionals work together to educate the participants on nutrition, exercise science and the psychology of weight loss and behavior change. Participants are divided into teams of six to eight and are assigned a personal trainer and dietetic intern. They are required to attend weekly educational sessions, three team workouts per week and one program exercise session per week. For other days of the week, participants can work out with a teammate or on their own. They also must turn in food and activity logs each week and communicate daily with their trainer and teammates.

“We knew that we wanted a program that had accountability, camaraderie and really dealt with the mindset of the person,” says Janis Newton, assistant director of the Medical University of South Carolina Wellness Center. “Information and knowledge are a given, but that doesn’t always result in long-term success when it comes to weight loss and obesity. We wanted to be able to offer something different and above and beyond that would help people who have fought this problem for many years but have never been able to jump that last hurdle that gave them long-term success.”

Every week, participants are challenged with new exercise routines and new healthy behaviors that they must focus on integrating into their lives as they compete to see which team has lost the most percentage of body weight. Even though the competition is determined by percentage of body weight lost, the real focus is on finding strategies to gradually change habits and attitudes. True success is measured when the participants’ new habits and lifestyles become part of who they are, and they begin to live their lives differently and redefine their future health, Newton says.