Some really top dieters coming here for TOPS convention
Tuesday, July 13, 2004
By Virginia Linn, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Low-carb. Atkins, South Beach. Weight Watchers. The headlines are filled with these flashy diets and eating plans.
But humming along just under the public radar is a 56-year-old organization that has drawn phenomenal participation in the Pittsburgh area with it's old-fashioned mantra: sensible eating and exercise.
It's the nonprofit, noncommercial support group called TOPS -- Take Off Pounds Sensibly -- and it has more than 100 chapters meeting in southwestern Pennsylvania, including 32 in Allegheny County.
Beginning Thursday, Pittsburgh will be host to its first international TOPS convention at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. More than 4,000 members will be attending the July 15-17 event, which is highlighted by the crowning of the international king and queen -- the top losers (or winners, perhaps) of the year.
That's an honor Dr. Lloyd Comstock celebrated in 1997. The former Plum physician's 155-pound weight loss earned him the crown amid a cheering crowd at a convention in Santa Clara, Calif.
It took him 1 3*4 years to drop the weight from a high
of 360 pounds, helping to erase the inner conflict he
felt when he had to advise his own patients to lose
weight.
He couldn't have done it without the TOPS support, he said at the time.
Founded in 1948 by Esther Manz, a Milwaukee homemaker who reached out to her friends to help her lose weight, TOPS now has 235,000 members in more than 10,000 chapters in the United States, Canada and other countries.
TOPS provides members with information, motivation and fellowship in attaining and maintaining their weight-loss goals, which are set by their personal physicians.
Like Weight Watchers, members meet weekly for a private weigh-in and positive reinforcement. It's far cheaper than Weight Watchers -- a $20 annual fee and dues of $1 or $2 per week.
Then there's the weekly "penalties" of a dime or quarter members may pay if the scale heads too far in the wrong direction.
Weight loss has more to do with personal transformation than calories, said Howard Rankin, a South Carolina clinical psychologist who is psychological advisor to TOPS. That's why the support network is so critical.
Rosemary McDonald, a secretary who lives in Sheraden, joined 30 years ago with her sister Margaret.
"I have been up and down,'' she said of her weight. "I stopped smoking and I've been up again.''
She stays because of the people.
"When you're here for 30 years, it's more like a family. We're not here to badmouth people. We're here to help each other reach our goals.''
Bonnie Henry of Connellsville, who joined in April 1997 and lost 68 pounds by the following April, recounted how a group of her fellow TOPS members showed up at the scene of a fire at her apartment four years ago.
"The chapter took up a collection; people donated whatever they had. I had this huge basket of cards, with $1 to $50 in these cards. "I can't believe this,'' Henry recalled.
''I have developed some great friendships,'' she said. "They've helped with a personal struggle.''
Source:www.post-gazette.com
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