Take Off Pounds Sensibly Club (TOPS)

Membership activities: Tops members meet weekly in thousands of local weight-loss support chapters across the united states and canada to weigh-in, learn ways to become healthier (through professionally prepared programs about nutrition, proper portion sizes, fitness, self-care, and behavior modification) and to support and recognize one another as they make healthy lifestyle changes together. Tops' goal is to ensure people are at their healthiest at every weight. This is accomplished through several member programs such as retreats, international recognition day, and recognition awards.

Field staff activities: Tops has nearly 400 field staff, all of whom are members and many of whom are volunteers. Tops has an agreement with these dedicated men and women to provide support and service to chapters in their local areas. They organize volunteer training sessions for leaders and chapter officers to help them continuously improve the experience the volunteers in their weight-loss and healthy lifestyle efforts. Tops headquarters makes available numerous tools for field staff support, including free retreats, best practices webinars, and the like.

Education activities: as an approved provider for support services funded by the centers for disease control and prevention, Tops continues to expand its joint efforts with local and state health departments to reach underserved, low-income communities through wisewoman and similar programs. Tops is cooperating with an independent researcher investigating the efficacy of our program in a targeted study of african-american breast cancer survivors funded over a multi-year grant from the national institutes of health. Tops continues its decades-long relationships with university reasearchers investigating the disease of obesity and its comorbidities.