Men poorly served by weight loss programmes

13/06/14 . News

The Men's Health Forum has welcomed a report from researchers at Aberdeen University on weight loss programmes. Now the findings must be put into practice.

Fewer men join weight loss programmes but are more likely than women to stick with them, according to the analysis of international obesity studies led by University of Aberdeen researchers.

Men also prefer the use of simple ‘business-like’ language, welcome humour used sensitively, and benefit from the moral support of other men in strategies to tackle obesity.

These are some of the findings of scientists prompting them to suggest if weight loss programmes were specifically designed for men these might be more effective at helping them lose weight.

Martin Tod, the Men's Health Forum's CEO said 'Men are not getting the service they need on weight loss from the NHS. Even though men are more likely than women to be overweight and obese - and more likely to die from weight-related disease - men are still only a small minority of those in NHS-funded weight loss programmes. We welcome this new research. It is crucial though, that we put the findings into practice and develop programmes that appeal to men and work for men. Otherwise men will continue to suffer avoidable disease and unnecessarily early death.'

The Men's Health Forum advised Abeerdeen University on the report which was published for Men's Health Week.

The Men's Health Forum has produced tips for health professionals based on the research and will produce a handbook for those helping men lose weight.

The Men’s Health Forum need your support

It’s tough for men to ask for help but if you don’t ask when you need it, things generally only get worse. So we’re asking.

In the UK, one man in five dies before the age of 65. If we had health policies and services that better reflected the needs of the whole population, it might not be like that. But it is. Policies and services and indeed men have been like this for a long time and they don’t change overnight just because we want them to.

It’s true that the UK’s men don’t have it bad compared to some other groups. We’re not asking you to ‘feel sorry’ for men or put them first. We’re talking here about something more complicated, something that falls outside the traditional charity fund-raising model of ‘doing something for those less fortunate than ourselves’. That model raises money but it seldom changes much. We’re talking about changing the way we look at the world. There is nothing inevitable about premature male death. Services accessible to all, a population better informed. These would benefit everyone - rich and poor, young and old, male and female - and that’s what we’re campaigning for.

We’re not asking you to look at images of pity, we’re just asking you to look around at the society you live in, at the men you know and at the families with sons, fathers and grandads missing.

Here’s our fund-raising page - please chip in if you can.

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