Weight Management

Over 300 million adults are obese worldwide, according to shocking statistics from the World Health Organisation and the International Obesity Task Force released in June 2006. That number surpasses the number of those deemed to be under- nourished worldwide.

According to the US Food and Drug Administration, about 31% of the American population, or about 59 million people, are classified as obese (which is defined as roughly 30 or more pounds over a healthy weight). Almost 65% are either obese or ‘overweight' (10 to 30 pounds over a healthy weight).

A total of 52% of the UK population is overweight , with around one in five adults—around 17% of men and 21% of women — being classed as obese. In the UK alone the incidence of childhood obesity grew from 9.6% in 1995 to 13.7% in 2003. European Union figures estimate that around 14 million children living in the EU are currently overweight or obese, of which more than three million are obese.

Many people cite health and longevity concerns for their desire to shed their excess weight. However, social and cosmetic factors are often far stronger motivations when the emphasis in our society is placed on unfeasibly thin and medically underweight fashion models and actresses as the model for all things beautiful and desirable. No wonder larger people are often regarded in a negative light as slothful, greedy, unattractive, unintelligent and lazy.

According to a survey undertaken in the UK in 2005, 77% of women are not comfortable looking at themselves naked in a mirror, 80% of women aged between 18-30 feel under pressure to be thin, and 20% don't like undressing in front of their partner.

Overweight people, as a consequence of these social pressures, often feel inadequate, inferior, invisible, and lacking in self-confidence. A survey of attitudes published in the American magazine ‘Psychology Today' found that many overweight people would be willing to exchange three years of their lives for thinness.

Most people who decide to lead a healthier life go on traditional diets. At any one time in the UK , 40% of women and 9% of men are trying to shed their excess weight. However, dieting brings its own problems. Dr Frankie Phillips of the British Nutrition Foundation was quoted in May 2004 as saying that constant dieting could be a health risk and make people feel bad about themselves.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of would-be slimmers regain all the weight they have shed — and gain a little more, just for good measure. Many people are on the treadmill of shedding then gaining weight — the notorious pattern of ‘yo-yo dieting'. 55% of dieters claim that most diet plans are not designed for ‘everyday, normal' people.

Before you even think it, it is completely untrue that there are certain people who cannot ‘lose' weight; anyone can, if they have the desire or need to do so. But getting rid of your excess weight is just one part of the job – the other is keeping that fat off once you reach your target weight and shape. Research has shown that maintaining the positive behaviors and habits that helped you shift the weight in the first place will allow you to do this.

Many people assume that going on a diet to lose weight just requires will-power, and that they fail because they lack it. What they do not realise is that they have not failed the diet, the diet has failed them.

In reality, the secret to losing weight is gaining an understanding of why it was gained in the first place, and then kept on or increased. It is about giving yourself permission to leave the weight and the behaviour which created it behind, in the past, where it was belongs.

It is also about leaving behind, in the past, all you ever learned about the mental straight jacket that is dieting: the disordered thought patterns, the guilt, the obsessional behavior, the unrealistic ‘rules', the deprivation, and the hunger.

I work with you to help you change your life, to instil the behaviours and habits you need to develop to succeed with your weight reduction goals.

You didn't wake up overweight one day — it took you a while to get there. And just as gaining weight is a slow process, so is shedding it. You need to get rid of any ideas you have about a quick fix.

You need to choose, and actively engage in, the behaviour changes. Nobody can do this for you. You need to take charge of the exciting new changes and maintain the new behaviours until they become second nature, or habits. And you know, a habit can become reality in as little as 21 days. Just three short weeks to the New You!

This is also about becoming healthy and fit (both mentally and physically), and using these achievements as a springboard from which you can go on to achieve all your goals and dreams in life. Being and feeling empowered by succeeding at weight management, and having a positive self-image, will have positive benefits in many other areas of your life.