The world-renowned Duke Diet & Fitness Center is hoping to attract more Triangle residents to its program with the addition of a less expensive outpatient program in January 2009.

The Center's residential program started in 1969 and has attracted celebrities and many others to the City of Medicine to lose weight.

Dr. Martin Binks, director of Behavioral Health at the Center, says a recent move to a new and larger facility off Erwin Road provided a good opportunity for the expansion, which he anticipates will serve a broader variety of patients.

"We're also looking at ways that we can include some people that are maybe somewhat underserved and be able to extend the reach through some of our residential program philanthropic activities to people that maybe wouldn't have the opportunity for this level of care," said Binks.

The typical cost for a residential program participant is about $10,000, including lodging in Durham while they attend the program. Binks says the outpatient program will likely be less than a tenth of that.

"It will be more accessible to the average person and I think that's part of the goal," he said.

You can hear more about the program by clicking on the video link above.   Or visit the Duke Diet & Fitness Center website.