Slimming World groups are the best solution to obesity
Commercial weight management organisations have welcomed the results of a study published tomorrow in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) that compared weight losses achieved through NHS referral to Slimming World, Weight Watchers and Rosemary Conley with those achieved through primary care led programmes. The study shows that commercial slimming clubs are more effective and cheaper.
Slimming World on Referral has been in operation for 10 years and these latest findings confirm a recent study of 34,000 patients - the largest audit of a commercial weight management organisation -which found that patients who complete at least 10 of the 12 weeks achieve a 5.5% weight loss¹. Slimming World now works with around 70 health trusts across England to provide weight management services via the Slimming World on Referral scheme and has recently welcomed its 100,000th member, Ian Parsonage.
Ian, 40, from Wigan turned his health around and felt his confidence grow when he lost 3st 1lb and was referred to Slimming World via the Lose Weight, Feel Great scheme run by NHS Ashton, Leigh and Wigan.
“I first started to notice how overweight I’d become through the customers at work. I weighed 15st 7.5lbs at my heaviest and they’d refer to me as the ‘big grey haired chap’. I’m not vain but being defined by my weight really affected my confidence and made me feel self conscious. I also noticed the effects on my health. I suffer with asthma and since gaining weight I’d started having to use two inhalers. I also had pretty painful heartburn most days and I generally felt sluggish and tired,” says Ian.
“I’d heard about Slimming World and the scheme called ‘Lose Weight Feel Great’ in Wigan, where they offer weight loss support depending on how much you have to lose and any other health problems. My wife wanted to lose weight too so we visited our GP together and he referred us to Slimming World for 12 weeks.
“As a man I was a bit daunted about going into group for the first time as slimming clubs just sounded like a woman’s world to me. But as soon as I went in I was made to feel really welcome. The group made me feel totally at ease right from the very start. I like cooking and at Slimming World I’ve found I can still have all my favourite meals. It’s just making little tweaks so they still taste great, but they’re so much healthier. There is so much food you can have.
“There is no doubt that losing weight has changed my life. I’ve got so much more energy, more get-up-and-go. My asthma has improved and I’m more confident too. I always thought that keeping the weight off would be the hardest part but now I’m part of this little community it doesn’t feel like that any more. I’m getting free weekly support and inspiration from others and swapping recipes and ideas so that it never gets boring - with all this I know I’ve got the tools to keep my weight off for life.”
Slimming World’s partnership with Wigan was set up in January 2009 as a care pathway for managing excess weight in adults. It was the first scheme to create a comprehensive care pathway providing targeted, cost-effective healthy weight support for the entire adult population of the Wigan borough and focused on achieving long term weight loss and maintenance.
Dr Jacquie Lavin, Head of Nutrition and Research at Slimming World, who was involved in devising the company’s Referral scheme, the first in the UK, says: “The Lighten Up study conducted by Birmingham is a welcome endorsement of commercial weight management organisations and provides evidence that supports our own published findings.¹ ²
"I couldn’t have put it better than Professor of Nutrition and Dietetics at Monash University, Helen Truby, who says in an editorial in the BMJ in reference to the Lighten Up study: ‘Any intervention has a dose-response association, and the commercial sector harnesses not only the power of the group in weekly doses (sessions) but extends support via the internet, magazines, and telephone. The intensity of the intervention itself combined with the immediacy of support (whether virtual or in real time) maintains motivation, and this combined with incentives and awards drives sustained behavioural change. In this respect, primary care models are bound to fall short of the required mark because they provide the least intensive support and the lowest dose of intervention’.”
Dr Lavin adds: “Obesity is one of the biggest challenges facing the health service. If responsibility for public health and obesity in communities moves across to public health teams in local authorities as the government plans, commissioners need to be working closely with us as the largest and widest-reaching weight loss organisation in the UK and Ireland. Slimming World has over 40 years experience. Our Consultants run more than 8,000 weekly sessions in local communities around the country, few other organisations have the infrastructure or reach to offer the regular, individual and effective support that patients need to lose weight and keep it off.”
- ends -
For further information or opportunity to speak to Dr Jacquie Lavin or Dr James Stubbs or Ian Parsonage, please contact the Slimming World press office on 01773 546101 or email: public.relations@slimming-world.com
Notes to Editors
- ¹ Stubbs RJ, Pallister C, Whybrow S, Avery A, Lavin J. Weight Outcomes Audit for 34,271 Adults Referred to a Primary Care/Commercial Weight Management Partnership Scheme. Obesity Facts 2011;4:1-1 (DOI: 10.1159/000327249)
- ² Lavin J.H, Avery A, Whitehead S.M, Rees E, Parsons J, Bagnall T, Barth J.H. & Ruxton C.H.S. 2006. Feasibility and benefits of implementing a Slimming on Referral service in primary care using a commercial weight management partner. Public Health. 120(9), pp872-881
- Slimming World is the largest and most advanced slimming organisation in the UK. Margaret Miles-Bramwell (OBE, FRSA) founded the company in 1969 and there are now more than 8,000 groups held weekly nationwide via a network of nearly 3,000 Slimming World trained Consultants.
- 400,000 members attend Slimming World every week and achieve outstanding success.
- Slimming World pioneered referral schemes in the UK and actively supports the building of partnerships with the NHS and local authorities to develop effective strategies to manage overweight and obesity in the community. Slimming World works with university researchers and specialists in an active research programme to further knowledge of the causes and treatment of obesity.
- Slimming World's healthy eating plan, Food Optimising®, and the principles behind Slimming World's philosophy are based on a deep understanding of the challenges faced by overweight people. Slimming World integrates practical, up-to-date dietary advice with a highly developed support system.
- Slimming World Consultants receive specific training in dietary aspects and the role of physical activity in weight control. The highly developed training focuses on facilitating behaviour change in a group environment, acknowledged by experts as being the most effective way to support long-term weight management.