DECATUR - Faces around the radiation oncology department at Decatur Memorial Hospital have changed recently. The people are the same, but six of the radiation therapists and dosimetrists have teamed up to slim down and start living in a healthier way.

The desire to get fit came when the group of women, who say they had struggled with being overweight for some time, heard about the DMH Wellness Center's Weight Management Program, a physician- and dietitian-monitored weight loss program.

The wellness center's program director, Becky Anderson, held a special orientation for the women to tell them about the program's three levels. Half of them were placed on the first level of the program, which consists of an all-liquid diet meant to severely restrict calories and eliminate the options of making negative food choices or overeating for a period of time.

A second level of the program, on which the other half of the team was placed, combines liquid meal replacement shakes and soups with limited food options and smaller portion sizes, a less intense version of the first. The third level involves no meal replacements and is based on three exercise sessions for a trainer and meal guides from a dietitian.

Radiation therapists Jill McQuinn and Melissa Repscher, who started the program in July, have lost 60 and 49 pounds, respectively, by participating in the all-liquid plan. Their co-workers - radiation therapists Tara Walters and Kim Schmitz and dosimetrists Jennifer Harris and Kim Loehr - followed suit soon after they started, losing a combined total of about 90 pounds so far.

Walters has lost 26 pounds since she began the program, but her lactose intolerance prevented her from doing the all-liquid plan.

The women go together to weekly program meetings on Monday nights. Once they have achieved their goals through the program, they can continue to attend meetings to reinforce healthy habits.

"I never set a goal at the beginning, but I'm smaller than I've ever been in my life that I can remember," McQuinn said, adding that maintaining a commitment to regular exercise is an extremely important part of her life now.

Aside from the changes in their appearances, the women touted the health benefits their weight loss had meant for them.

"I had high blood pressure, which I was on meds for, and mine is now in reasonable range," Loehr said. "I'm still on meds, but maybe after I see the doctor I'll get to go off."

"I was very close to having high cholesterol," Repscher said. "My numbers were very close to that borderline mark. And when they compared my last blood draw, which was at the very end of the program, to the very first one, it had dropped like almost half."

They also said the camaraderie with others going through the program made it more fun and gave them an extra sense of accountability.

"I think it was definitely nice having at least someone going through it with you to stick with it because they understood what you were feeling and going through," Repscher said. "My family was pretty supportive, but they don't know what it's like to not be able to put food in your mouth."

Participants on the meal replacements get lab work drawn every other week and have urinalyses done for the first seven weeks to monitor the changes in their bodies and ensure safe progress.

Anderson said people often come to the orientations thinking they know which level of the program they want to go into. But in order to be approved for a more restrictive plan, they must be identified as good candidates and have a significant amount of weight to lose.

There is a sliding scale that determines the number of weeks a person should be on the all-liquid diet, Anderson said, and that time is spent working to get them into a healthy range.

While aspects of the program could be viewed as extreme, the restrictive approach could be right for certain people who lack the ability to differentiate between physical hunger and psychological hunger or have a food addiction, Anderson said.

But the physician monitoring is what makes the program safe, she added. Making sure electrolyte and uric acid levels remain normal and preventing medical liabilities such as cardiac arrhythmia, gallbladder disease and liver enzyme problems is crucial.

"People need to get to a certain weight, what they consider ideal," Anderson said, but she added that modest weight loss also can have considerable medical benefits. Free orientations for the program are held on the last Wednesday of each month. A session to be held on the second Fridays of the month will begin in March.

"This program really taught me what to do," McQuinn said, comparing her experience to other weight loss methods she had tried.

The women said they had learned how to recognize the feelings of actual hunger and fullness and to understand why they are making the healthy food choices they do.

"I still eat stuff I like - pizza or a cheeseburger or whatever," McQuinn said. "But I eat about half as much as I did before. Like if my fiance and I go out to get cheeseburgers or something, we'll share a cheeseburger and fries, not eat the whole thing. Or if we get pizza, I'll eat a big salad and have one piece, not four pieces and five cheese sticks.

Annie Getsinger can be reached at agetsinger@herald-review.com or 421-6968.