The government has today launched a healthy living campaign to stem the rising obesity rates in England warning that, left alone, obese and overweight people would cost the taxpayer £50bn by 2050.

The "eat well, move more, live longer" message of the "Change4Life" campaign isn’t a surprise to Slimming World members who do just that! With Food Optimising and Body Magic, they lead healthier, fitter lives… and pass those positive changes to their families too.

For forty years, Slimming World has been helping people all over the UK to make small changes to the way they shop, cook and eat, and to take realistic steps to become more active in their day to day lives. Hand in hand, with the powerfully motivating group support Slimming World is renowned for, hundreds of thousands of slimmers have lost millions of pounds and reaped the many health benefits associated with weight loss.  You can read their inspiring stories of success here…

Whether you want to lose weight to feel more energetic, to love the way you look, to lead a healthier life or to avoid health problems in the future, join a warm and friendly Slimming World group and start making easy, realistic change towards a healthy new you - for life.

Every year after Christmas, Slimming World members all over the UK take part in a 6-week Slimathon in aid of our charity SMILES (Slimmers Making It a Little Easier for Someone) which, this year, is supporting the NSPCC.  And we're delighted to announce that 2008's results have now been finalised and 2008's grand total is £42,000! An enormous thank you and congratulations to all 400 fabulous slimmers who took part and lost an incredible 232 stones between them for this incredibly worthwhile cause.

This year's shining Slimathon star is Jan from West Sussex.  Jan has lost an awesome 1st 4lbs, raising £1,000 in the process, and wins two tickets to the glittering Slimming World Awards ceremony in November.

For more information about SMILES, visit www.slimmingworld.com/smiles.asp.

When Elaine Gammond, a manager at the Elliman Resource Centre in Slough, Berkshire heard about Slimming World’s referral programme she approached her local Berkshire East Primary Care Trust (PCT) to fund a trial service for people with learning difficulties at the centre.

The PCT already had a Slimming World on Referral programme in place, so they agreed to the extension of the programme. A new Slimming World group was set up in-house at the resource centre specifically for members with special needs who could be referred by their GP. A Slimming World Consultant ran the group with support from the PCT’s learning difficulties care staff. Members, ranging in age from 20-60 attended the group with their carers for 24 weeks.

Slimming World prepared visual aids such as laminated pictures of low energy dense foods (Slimming World’s Free Foods) and packaging to present Food Optimising, Slimming World’s unique, balanced, healthy eating plan. Members were encouraged to eat plenty of Free Foods and to choose healthier meal options. They also took part in Slimming World’s Body Magic programme which encourages small steps to regular activity. The centre arranged activities such as group walks and keep-fit classes which the members embraced enthusiastically. They also started a local beginners’ dancing class and held a Special Olympics day. Average attendance was 19 weeks, weight change was -4.2kg and 55% achieved a 5% weight loss within the 24 weeks.

“Slimming World welcomes members with learning difficulties or special needs accompanied by their carers at our groups,” says Sue Gibson, Business Development Manager (Public Health). “We have produced weight management support literature in Braille and larger print as well as an audio version for the visually impaired and other patient groups.”