Adolescent & Pediatric Weight Center

Medical Nutrition Program

Our Medical Nutrition Program is specially designed to help pre-teens and teens reach a healthier body weight. This seven-month program includes:

Evaluation visit – Individual meetings with a doctor, dietitian (nutritionist) and psychologist, all specializing in weight management.

• Doctor – Looks closely for reasons why the patient or family members gain weight easily, whether there are weight-related medical problems. This includes an in-depth consultation and blood tests
• Dietitian – Learns about your preferences and usual habits for food and physical activity, which will help to guide choices for healthy change
• Psychologist – Looks for how mood, emotional stress, and other challenges might interfere with healthy choices, and helps to develop ideas for solving these problems

Program visits – Months 1 through 6 (seven visits)

• Meet monthly with your team doctor and dietitian
• Each visit focuses on a different theme, including: Basic nutrition, fad diets, eating away from home, drinks and snacks, physical activity and screen time, and mindfulness/feeling satisfied. Each of these themes is individualized to the family, depending on your needs and interests 
• Some teens or families will have additional meetings with the psychologist, if desired

Reassessment – At month 7, have an in-depth meeting with your team doctor and dietitian; review progress, and discuss options for further weight management (either weight maintenance or weight loss).

• To help with weight maintenance, we can arrange intermittent follow up with the Weight Center team
• If more work is needed, options might include further stages of the medical nutrition program, adding a medicine to help with weight. We can also advise about the possibility of weight loss surgery for teens who might be interested in this option

Adolescent Weight Loss Surgery

Our Adolescent Weight Loss Surgery program is specially designed for teens with serious weight problems and their families. The programs goals are:

• To help you make an informed and responsible decision about whether and when to have weight loss surgery
• To make sure that surgery is as effective and safe as possible for those who have it

Learn more about our Adolescent Weight Loss Surgery program.

Patient Resources

View the full collection of patient resources from the MGfC Adolescent Weight Center.

Patient Stories

Kai’s story: MGH Weight Center helps college graduate navigate the rapids of learning a healthier lifestyle
For most his life, Kai Forcey-Rodriguez, 24, struggled with his weight. Feeling exhausted and overwhelmed, Forcey-Rodriguez, of Durham, NH, came to the MGH Adolescent and Pediatric Weight Center in 2016. After losing 50 pounds and gaining the ability to walk six miles, Forcey-Rodriguez remains steadfast in his journey.

Dietitians

• Abeer Bader, MS, RD
• Colleen Johnson, MS, RD
• Arianna Wood, MS, RD
• Kathleen Wright , MS, RD