WEIGHT MANAGEMENT & OBESITY Health and fitness clubs
tend to focus too much on weight loss instead of the wider benefits of exercise
what the health service got out of it. We could say getting fi tter is going to reduce your risk of a heart attack – which it may well do, but are we going to wait 15 years to see what happens to the heart disease rate? We don’t have any easy measures,
and that’s one of the areas I think the fi tness industry could explore much more: fi nding different, really simple tools that show what people have gained in the short term. But overall I’m a huge fan of people
being in charge of their lives. Losing weight and getting into shape is so empowering, so I do believe health clubs have a big part to play.
There’s too much focus on weight, which is the hardest indicator to change from a lifestyle approach: BMI is very tough to alter. In the meantime there are other health gains that people do achieve, but they usually go unnoticed and unmeasured. We see a rapid drop-off in gym attendances between January and
Q What can gyms do better?
They could also better manage
“We have to take a lot more care in how academic
research fi ndings are conveyed to
the public, so the messages aren’t twisted into
headline grabbers”
February because gyms use the wrong measure – indeed, a commonly unhelpful measure – which is BMI change. People think they’ve achieved nothing so they stop going. Gyms should encourage more specifi c measures to track progress and show the real health gains people are achieving, such as improved stamina, muscle strength and sense of wellbeing.
68 Read Health Club Management online at
healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital
expectations. Ensure people have realistic goals. Give them an understanding of the timescale over which they may get benefi ts. Help people understand what to expect from activity – that they will ache, feel breathless and so on. The really important thing is to make
sure they’re giving comprehensive advice – not getting embroiled in the very specifi c health messages but just teaching basic principles. For example, there are plenty of people who do one thing to compensate for another – who starve themselves because they don’t exercise, or who exercise and then stuff their faces – and health clubs could help them understand and change these behaviours. They could teach people to eat to appetite, to respect their sense of fullness. They could help parents understand how to get variety into their children’s diets, which basically starts with eating that same variety yourself and looking like you’re enjoying it. It’s about helping people create simple
structures for healthier living, and health clubs are in a great position to do this. ●
January 2015 © Cybertrek 2015
PHOTO:
WWW.SHUTTERSTOCK.COM/CLAIRES
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