Weight loss group sees success in support-based approach.

2004 AUG 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- The city where French fries on salads and potato-stuffed dumplings known as pierogis are standard fare has attracted an unlikely group: those watching their waistlines.

Thousands of members of the support group Take Off Pounds Sensibly, or TOPS, were in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for their international convention. Founded more than 50 years ago at a homemaker's kitchen table, the nonprofit group boasts 235,000 members at more than 10,000 chapters in the United States and Canada.

But unlike popular weight loss plans that tell people what they can and can't eat, TOPS emphasizes support. Participants, who pay $20 a year to join, are encouraged to work out a nutritional plan with their physicians and discuss reasons they've gained or lost weight during weekly group meetings.

"It was like having another family," said Beverly Enos, of Georgetown, Massachusetts, who has been a member since 1970. "TOPS is very much a support group. There is no one lecturing, telling you what to do."

Enos, 54, joined the program in Japan while living on a military base. She lost 70 pounds, and has kept it off for more than 25 years.

"I was going to the gym and stuff but I needed to lose the weight and I couldn't do it alone. Alone I gained, so I needed to do it with people," Enos said.

About two-thirds of American adults are overweight or obese. Obesity, which is linked to diabetes, heart disease and other ailments, is on track to beat smoking as the nation's leading cause of preventable death.