About two-thirds of adults in the United States are overweight, with half of those being obese.

Michigan rates as the ninth-most-obese state in the nation.

Obesity, a preventable cause of death yet one of the most serious health problems of this century, can lead to reduced life expectancy and/or increased health problems such as heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and cancer of the breast, prostate and colon.

Seminars on successfully reducing excess weight are scheduled for this spring to repeat a series that was held early in 2010.

At that time, 82 percent of participants lost weight, with a total weight loss of 276 pounds.

Some of those attendees have continued to lose weight, including Karen,   who has lost more than 100 pounds.

“I knew I was eating all the wrong things,” she says, “but was struggling with motivation to change lifelong patterns of behavior.”

Learning about “emotional triggers” and the need for group support helped her to experience long-term success.

Janet, who tried many other weight-loss plans and almost gave up on ever being successful, found the series to be both informative and inspiring.

“Always before I would gain back the weight I lost and then some,” she says. “This time it stayed off. This time I simply learned how to live sensibly.”

Eating nutritional foods and exercising regularly aid in other ways as well.

Valerie, who has lost 30 pounds since the beginning of the seminar, says, “I haven’t gotten sick when people all around me have been down with flu and colds. It makes clothes shopping a lot of fun, where before it would just be depressing.”

Elaine, who lost 40 pounds as a result of learning about fiber and whole grains, explains it this way: I am stronger than I was, and I have continued to gain strength.”

All the interviewees recommend the series to others, and thus it has been rescheduled to start this month.

Presented by “Dynamic Health,” the seminars will be held at 410 Hill St. in Dowagiac on every Tuesday evening from March 22 through May 24 (7-9 p.m.).

Registration is $40 for the entire series if paid on the first night, or $5 per night for each session.

Sample topics include the food-brain link, low-calorie foods, dietary and trans fats, protein quality, reducing cancer risk, increasing physical activity, benefits of adequate sleep, heart health and more.

Teachers include Bill Bradford (a retired laboratory manager and professor), Frida Swenson (a senior nutrition major at Andrews University), Christine Wallace (a fitness, exercise and aerobics instructor), and Melody Wallace (a registered nurse and health educator).

From her experience attending the series, Valerie remembers the presenters as “knowledgeable and caring without being overly critical of what choices got me into the seminar in the first place.”

Between presenters and participants, the “support and encouragement was a team approach,” says Elaine.

Improving dietary quality and increasing physical exercise are the most successful and least expensive treatments for decreasing excessive weight.

Attendees to this program will learn about lifelong weight management.

“I would recommend this program to everyone,” Janet says, “as it’s not just a weight loss program, but a healthy way to live. And you feel the support needed to make the changes necessary in your life.”

Come on March 22 planning to lose weight, gain good health, lower risk for disease and make friends who have the same goals.

For more information, call 1–877–528–8155 or e-mail dynamichealth@dowagiacadventist.org.