Losing weight can be hard enough as it is. It can be even harder when you stop losing it or start gaining it back.

Auburn Memorial Hospital's Finger Lakes Weight Loss is beginning a program to help people deal with just that. Called Back on Track, the six-week class will be made for individuals who are beginning to see some of their efforts to get fit and healthy begin to reverse.

The program will be led by Shelly Sennett, who leads support groups for patients who have undergone or are considering surgical weight loss procedures through Finger Lakes Weight Loss.

Back on Track will be an interactive program that will provide a structured diet plan, exercise routine and a platform for establishing weight loss and fitness goals.

But perhaps more importantly, Sennett said, the program will try and help people examine themselves and get to the root of their issues with food and eating.

Only a third of weight loss is about making good choices with food, she said. The rest is about changing your behavior.

Sennett is no stranger to the process. She lost 116 pounds after receiving gastric bypass surgery in August 2007. Sennett said a lot of people who undergo similar procedures will end up gaining a lot of weight back because they don't change their behavior.

“It's like any other addiction, except we can't live without ours,” Sennett said. “Controlling what you eat is about learning about yourself so it is not controlling you.”

The program was developed by Colleen Cook at the Bariatric Support Centers International, an organization dedicated to creating programs for patients who have received similar surgeries.

While Back on Track will be offered to patients who have undergone surgical weight loss, it is meant for anyone who has lost weight and is seeing that scale crawling back upward, Sennett said.

“I can't tell you how depressing that is,” she said.

Back on Track will include a lot of peer support as well as structure, Sennett said. Participants will meet once a week, and at each meeting they will receive a book and other materials to help them.

Each week is expected to build on the last, and discussions will focus on topics like watching labels at grocery stores, managing stress and targeting areas in your life that trigger eating.

But Sennett said she also will encourage participants to share with each other, because that support reminds people they are not alone in their struggles.

“You have to rely on other people to not fall off the wagon,” said Sennett, who frequently compares overeating with alcoholism and drug addiction.

“They know what you're going through. They know what it's like,” she said.

Staff writer Christopher Caskey can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 282 or christopher.caskey@lee.net