Support is essential for keeping weight off

Lifestyle weight management services and weight loss support programmes play a crucial role in helping people to shed weight and help keep it off. Chris Smith was joined by Becky Johns and DawnSonnino from Slimming World...

Becky - I did a calorie reduced diet, tried my best to lose weight and found that I was really hungry all the time and really struggled to keep that momentum. I ended up yo-yoing all the time.

Chris - Dawn, is it very much about managing people's expectations of what a diet can do and over what sort of time? Because I think a lot of people are seduced by pictures of people in bikinis, beach ready, and they think "I want that." And they then launch into this very ambitious weight loss regime. And maybe they'll get there, but then they come home from their holiday and they're back to the environment that got them fat in the first place.

Dawn - Absolutely. So a lot of people will think they can come to Slimming World and within two weeks they'll lose all their weight. That's not going to happen. It's going to take a while and it's going to take a lot of changes. Once you've been on your holiday, then it's about coming back to group and getting back to starting the plan again and keeping it going. If you are only doing it for a certain amount of time, every year you're going to be rejoining. What we want you to do is stay with us.

Chris - So you don't, yo-yo.

Dawn - Yes. Get to understand the psychology, get to why you're doing what you're doing so we can change those habits. Once they're changed, then you're going to be successfully losing weight all the time until next year you are beach ready already. You haven't got to worry about losing it again.

Chris - Did you find yourself getting depressed, Becky, because a low calorie diet at the best of times makes you miserable.

Becky - It makes you very miserable. Yes, absolutely. And the bonus with Slimming World is the fact that not only are we encouraging you to eat the right foods and to make healthy habits for life, we also have what you call a body magic programme, which helps you with exercise as well. So that way you are getting all the endorphins going as well to keep you motivated and help you maintain that weight loss.

Chris:
Do people relapse?

Dawn - Definitely.

Chris - Should they be prepared for that? I've spoken to people who do really well on a diet. They're very proud of themselves, but then they have a hiccup. Something happens in their life or something goes wrong. They put weight back on and then they think the world has caved in?

Dawn - I become very complacent. "I know what I'm doing, I'm going to be fine." And then old habits creep back in and, before you know it, you are yo-yoing, you are going up again. But at Slimming World we always encourage members to just stop the rot, just come straight back in. No embarrassment and there's no humiliation. We're just proud and happy to have you back in to get where you want you to be.

Chris - Everybody I've ever met and talked to who's into nutrition and diets and so on is usually like a stick insect. People who go to these sorts of help groups find this very intimidating because the people they meet are often what they would dream their ideal body to be like and they think, "well that's not me. What have I got in common with this person?" You are normally proportioned, but were you always normally proportioned, Becky?

Becky - I've lost three stone from Slimming World and have very happily managed to keep most of that off. When I first walked through the door, I was very, very worried about what I was going to find on the other side.

Chris - And what did you find?

Becky - A lovely, supportive group that was there to support me and it felt very much like a family. We're all there in the same boat. We all want everybody to do really well and it's getting that support from everybody each week.

Chris - Have you had hiccups?

Becky - Absolutely. Ups and downs. Life gets in the way as we all know. It's finding the changes you need to make to make sure that you can get yourself back on plan and get yourself losing weight again if you need to.

Chris - And has that worked for you, Dawn?

Dawn - Yep, definitely. I was always thin as a child, right up until I was about 28 and then suddenly, due to ill health, ballooned in my weight.

Chris - And, if you don't mind me asking, how big did you get?

黎明——我要22号。我是14公顷lf stone. But at the time, as it was happening, I was always assuming it wasn't that bad. Until I had to buy clothes for my brother's wedding, actually. And I was absolutely mortified at the size I had become. And when I stepped into Slimming World, I thought, obviously I'm going to be the biggest person in the room, everyone's going to be looking at me. And when I got there, there were all shapes and sizes. Nobody looked at me any differently. They just accepted me as a new member.

Chris - And what size are you now?

Dawn - I'm now size 14.

Chris - So that's a dramatic change, isn't it?

Dawn - I was just telling Becky, now I need to buy new trousers because they're all too big for me!

Chris - What has really worked for both of you, what is the recipe to that success that you've both got? You've both lost substantial amounts of weight and kept it off for the main part over a long term. What's been the key to that?

Becky - Going to group and staying to group. Because that is what's going to keep you going. It's that support you get from the whole group as well as your consultant. And they notice you if you're not there. Getting that motivation, getting that support, getting the recipe ideas and everything else that you get in group.