SYRACUSE N.Y. (NCC News) — Solvay Public Library is one of multiple locations in Onondaga County that hosts Take Off Pounds Sensibly, or TOPS, weekly weight loss group meetings.
TOPS Club Inc. is an organization which aims to help people across the country lose weight in healthy ways. The organization has over 9,000 chapters and are welcome to anyone from the ages of 7 and older.
The facilitator of the Solvay Public Library chapter is Deborah Waters. Waters has lost over 40 lbs. since joining TOPS around two years ago. She joined TOPS after growing frustrated with her weight loss journey.
After clicking with fellow members and utilizing the weekly accountability that comes with attending the meetings, Waters said she wanted to continue with TOPS to make sure she could be there for those most important to her.
“By coming every week, I thought I would be able to step on that scale and see where I was on my journey,” said Waters. “And be able to make any adjustments, and I knew I had to make a number of adjustments in my life.”
TOPS meetings include a weekly weigh-in but that choice is up to each member, Waters said. The choice to step on the scale can be scary for TOPS members, but knowing where they are in relation to where they want to be is important, according to Waters.
“The strength and the courage to actually face that number on the scale and see what it is, for me it was that accountability piece,” said Waters.
The individuality of all members and their experiences is something that Waters said has helped her weight loss. Listening to the struggles of fellow members as well as her own motivates the group to continue with positive habits for the remainder of the week, Waters said.
“Each person in the group brings a different dynamic to it and building on each other’s strengths has helped me through my journey,” said Waters. “Each person is individual and each journey is individual for that person.”
A talking point of the group is the use of building small habits, like staying hydrated and getting enough sleep, which can help make a bigger change according to Waters. Making small changes become positive habits are ways that Waters has shifted her lifestyle.
“It’s hard to even think about now because it’s all so ingrained in how I do things now,” Waters said.
Solvay Public Library has hosted TOPS meetings for over five years, every week on Wednesday. Library manager Brain Rowlands said he tries to find every way to bring the community together in Solvay.
“We like to have the community room open to all different people just to have free space to be able to hold all different events,” Rowlands said. “Especially cultural or fitness.”
Jane Burrell, a Syracuse University nutrition professor, wants people to stop using labels like overweight or obese but instead wants people to pursue getting healthy.
“Sometimes adopting diet and lifestyle changes can help people achieve that health, and they may or may not see that weight change as a result,” Burrell said. “They can become healthier by nourishing their body, being physically active, getting enough sleep, trying to reduce stress, there are a lot of factors.”
Weight loss groups like ones sponsored by TOPS help people get healthier because humans are social beings, according to Burrell.
“As your social network involved more healthy behaviors and being more active, if you look forward to doing those things because of the social component of it, it reinforces that principle,” Burrell said.
The principle of getting healthier over prioritizing losing weight is also shared by Waters.
“The progress that we’re making, it’s not just losing weight it is getting healthier,” said Waters.