24
August
2017
|
11:20
Europe/Amsterdam

Slimming World supports Government health campaign to get people moving

Slimming World has joined the new Public Health England (PHE) One You physical activity campaign to encourage people to use the new Active 10 app to measure – and increase – the amount of ‘brisk walking’ they do.

Slimming World members were amongst the first people in the country to try the brand new app as part of a secret trial ahead of the launch of the One You campaign. The app is a great fit with Slimming World’s Body Magic programme, which takes the threat out of physical activity by showing people how they can build moderate and enjoyable activity, like walking, into their daily routine without having to take up traditional forms of ‘exercise’ like going to the gym or playing team sports.

Launched today (24 August), the new One You campaign is encouraging adults to build 10 minutes of continuous brisk walking into their day as a simple way to improve their health. The ‘Active 10’ app shows how much brisk walking a person is doing each day and gives tips on how to incorporate more of it into their lifestyles.

New figures, released by PHE, reveal that 6.3 million adults aged 40–60 do not achieve ten minutes of continuous brisk walking over the course of a month and are missing out on important health benefits, according to new evidence from PHE. With data showing that people in the UK are 20% less active now than they were in the 1960s and, on average, walk 15 miles less a year than two decades ago, Slimming World is keen to support efforts to help people get more active.

Taking at least one brisk ten minute walk a day has been shown to reduce the risk of early death by 15%. Getting enough physical activity each week can also provide health benefits including a lowered risk of type 2 diabetes (by 40%), cardiovascular disease (by 35%), dementia (by 30%) and some cancers (by 20%).

The severity of the current physical inactivity epidemic amongst adults contributes to one in six deaths in the UK and is costing the NHS over £0.9 billion per year.

 

Jenny Caven, Head of External Affairs
"The new Active 10 app, which can be easily downloaded to your Smartphone, is a great fit with our Body Magic physical activity programme as it focuses on building up activity in manageable 10 minute chunks and, by encouraging people to get their heart racing by walking briskly, it encourages real health benefits."
Jenny Caven, Head of External Affairs

Jenny Caven, Slimming World’s Head of External Affairs: “Walking brings amazing health benefits and it’s something that most of us do every day to some degree.

“If you’ve never been interested in running or are intimidated by the idea of going to the gym it’s easy to believe that you’re just not ‘the exercising type’, yet whether you’re doing a few laps of your local shopping centre, hopping off the bus a stop early or walking to a meet a friend for coffee, walking can be incorporated in many ways.

“At Slimming World we support our members to find enjoyable and sustainable ways of building more activity into their life. The new Active 10 app, which can be easily downloaded to your Smartphone, is a great fit with our Body Magic physical activity programme as it focuses on building up activity in manageable 10 minute chunks and, by encouraging people to get their heart racing by walking briskly, it encourages real health benefits.“Alongside a healthy eating plan that enables slimmers to lose weight without hunger and a powerfully motivating group support programme that empowers long term behaviour change, helping people to get more active in enjoyable ways that fit in with their lives is an important part of Slimming World’s approach.”

Dr Jenny Harries, Deputy Medical Director at PHE, said: “I know first-hand that juggling the priorities of everyday life often means exercise takes a back seat.

“Walking to the shops instead of driving or going for a brisk ten minute walk on your lunch break each day can add many healthy years to your life. The Active 10 app is a free and easy way to help anyone build more brisk walking into their daily routine.”

Professor Sir Muir Gray, Clinical Adviser for the Active 10 app and the One You campaign, said: “We all know physical activity is good for your health, but for the first time we’re seeing the effects that easily achievable changes can make. By walking just 10 continuous minutes at a brisk pace every day, an individual can reduce their risk of early death by 15%. They can also prevent or delay the onset of disability and further reduce their risk of serious health conditions, such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, dementia and some cancers”

The free app combines walking intensity and time, rather than just distance or steps and is the first of its kind. It helps people gradually introduce more activity into their daily routine, with goal setting advice and motivational tips. It has already helped 50,000 adults get more active and GPs across the country are recommending it to their own patients as a tool to help them manage existing conditions and prevent the negative health impact of inactivity.

You can download the Active 10 app here: https://www.nhs.uk/oneyou/active10/home#e0SLurwoYWjLiojw.97

 

Paul and Alex Slatter

Paul became ill in 2015, and Alex also fell ill in 2016, so they decided that they were given a second chance in life and wanted to make healthy lifestyle changes. They began by joining Slimming World for support and started cooking from scratch and eating more healthily.

The Consultant of their Slimming World group recommended that they should download the Active 10 app as a way to incorporate more walking into their daily routines. They found the app simple to use, regularly checking it throughout the day to find out how much brisk walking they were doing. And when combined with Slimming World’s food optimising eating plan, the app helped them to maintain a healthier weight.

The couple use the app as healthy competition to motivate each other to walk more briskly throughout the day.

They found the Active 10 app complemented Slimming World’s Body Magic programme, which helped take the threat out of physical activity by demonstrating how moderate activity, including brisk walking, can easily be a part of their daily routine.

Following the app allowed them to walk more, they’ve recently also taken up running with Paul having recently completed a 10k run and Alex is currently training for a half marathon. Both Alex and Paul have found that their improved fitness has benefitted them not only physically but also socially, emotionally and mentally. Since making lifestyle changes with Slimming World Paul has lost just over 4st and Alex has lost 5st.

Alex said: “Following a health scare, we decided to make changes to our lifestyles. We joined Slimming World and, after losing weight, the group Consultant recommended that we download the Active 10 app so we could track how much brisk walking we were doing. The Active 10 app helped brisk walking become part of our daily routine. Because we kept at it, it has allowed us to increase our fitness and physical activity levels. We’ve now even taken up running, and all of the walks on the way have helped us to get to this stage.”

Paul added: “It was great to be able to start this journey with Alex. We’d lost weight together and now we walk together and, once we were recommended the Active 10 app, it made it really easy to see where we were brisk walking and where we needed to speed up a bit. I found the breakdown of normal and brisk walking on the app really helpful. It was actually amazing how easy it is to do just 10 minutes.”

Notes to Editors

Slimming World was founded by Margaret Miles-Bramwell (OBE, FRSA) in 1969. There are now more than 18,000 groups held weekly across the UK and Republic of Ireland via a network of 4,000 community-based Slimming World Consultants, who receive specific training in the role of diet and physical activity in weight management, as well as sophisticated behaviour-change techniques.

Slimming World’s healthy eating plan, Food Optimising, is based on the science of satiety and energy density. Our phased activity programme, Body Magic, eases members into activity until it becomes an intrinsic part of their daily routine. The principles behind Slimming World’s philosophy are based on a deep understanding of the challenges faced by overweight people and a recognition that those who struggle with weight carry a double burden, the weight itself and a burden of guilt and shame about their weight. Slimming World’s programme integrates practical, up-to-date advice with a highly developed support system based on care and compassion, and Consultant training focuses on facilitating behaviour change in a warm and friendly group environment. Consultant training is delivered through the Slimming World Academy. Slimming World also invests in a comprehensive research programme to develop its support for long-term weight management. The group support provided by Slimming World is recognised as effective by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) and the NHS.

For more information about Slimming World’s approach visit www.slimmingworld.co.uk or call 0344 897 8000.

For the Press Office please email public.relations@slimmingworld.co.uk