Your weight, your health

You might be worried about your own weight. You might be worried about someone in your family - your partner or your child.

Being overweight can affect your health and how you feel about yourself. Accepting this is an important step towards making successful changes in your life. Being overweight can put your health at risk and at worst, it can lead to life-threatening conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and some cancers. But it can also cause discomfort, pain and unhappiness in many other ways too, for example breathing difficulties, joint pain, depression and low self-esteem.

Lifestyles Services - Keep It Off For Good

This is a free, confidential service that offers support, advice and a group-based 12 week weight management programme for people with a BMI of 30+ or a waist measurement of at least 34" (women) or 40" (men). Many people who attend have tried a number of diets before but have not been successful keeping the weight off. Keep It Off For Good is not a diet, it focuses on the person as a whole and involves making lifestyle changes that can be kept up for good, whilst also building self-confidence and positive thinking.Participants are also given real support around becoming more active and there are regular support groups for everyone who completes the course. Meetings are held at several locations in Stockport and at various times of the day and evening.

Change 4 Life

Change 4 Life is a national campaign that aims to help adults and their families to eat well, move more and live longer. Join Change4Life and receive a personalised pack full of tips, tools and activities to help you start to eat better and move around more.

Visit the Change 4 Life website

What is a healthy weight?

If you are an adult, doctors use something called Body Mass Index (BMI) to decide whether your weight could be affecting your health. To work out your BMI, you need to measure your height as well as your weight. If you want to check what sort of shape you're in, use the BMI Calculator.

Look at the BMI Calculator

 

How to lose weight

For many people, losing weight can be one of the greatest challenges they face. The best way to succeed is to start by making small realistic changes that you can stick to and then you'll soon begin to see results. To lose weight, you need to take less energy into your body from food and drink than the amount of energy your body uses up by being more active. This may sound simple but actually doing it - day in, day out, over weeks or months - needs planning and determination. Follow the links below to find out about the four ways to make your weight loss programme successful:

1. Eating right

 

2. Changing habits

 

3. Being active

 

4. Getting support

 

Useful contacts

Please note that links to websites will open in a new window.

Lifestyles Services
Address: Floor 3, Regent House, Heaton Lane, Stockport SK4 1BS
Phone: 0161 426 5085
Fax: 0161 426 5894
Minicom: 0161 477 2585
Email: sto-pct.stockportlifestyles@nhs.net