Health Focus Weight Loss Program

Recent studies have indicated that 60% of Australian adults are overweight or obese; This can be further broken down to 20% of Australian adults being obese. What is scary to note is in the last 30 years the percentage of those who are obese went from around 8% to 20% - almost tripling!2

How did this happen?
It appears that our lifestyle and eating habits have changed over the years. Some changes include

  • More TV, computer and gaming time and less time spent outdoors2
  • Increased use of cars for transport rather than walking, cycling or public transport2
  • Increases in convenience food consumption and less cooking at home from scratch2 among others.

The Weighty Issue

The problem with being overweight or obese is that you become at greater risk of developing the following conditions:

  • Heart disease and stroke4
  • Type 2 diabetes4
  • Cancers4
  • Osteo-arthritis4
  • Reduced self esteem4
  • Mental illness4

How do you know if you're at a Healthy Weight?

There are no perfect measures for overweight and obesity. But the most commonly used is the BMI (Body Mass Index) measure. This uses your weight and height to calculate if you fall into a healthy weight range (weight in kilograms divided by height in metres squared). While this measure is useful for most, it does not take into account age, gender, ethnicity and muscle mass so may not be ideal for certain people e.g. an elite athlete.1 Another useful measure is the waist circumference. Having weight around the abdominal organs and enlarged waist circumference, regardless of your BMI, means you are more likely to develop certain obesity related health conditions.1

Healthy BMI range: 18.5 - 24.99
Healthy waist circumference: females - under 80cm, males - under 94cm

What can you do?

Need some help getting to a healthy weight? Here are a few suggestions to get you started:

  • Increase incidental activity e.g. walk to the station, take the stairs instead of the lift, catch up with a friend for a walk rather than dinner, wear a pedometer and increase your steps daily
  • Introduce a small amount of exercise in your day e.g. walking up to 30 minutes per day, play ball with the kids, organise social/family tennis nights etc
  • Limit time spent in front of the tv, computer or x-box
  • Increase non-starchy vegetable intakeand replace high kilojoule snacks with vegetable based snacks and fresh fruit5
  • Choose low glycemic index (GI) carbohydrates e.g. low GI fruit, grainy breads, sweet potato instead of white potato, high fibre low GI cereals etc5
  • Choose low fat dairy and lean meats5
  • Cook from scratch using fresh vegetables and lean meats rather than getting take out

Starting a Formal Weight Loss Program can be a good way to begin. More information can be found by talking to one of our helpful staff.

Some useful information for our Port Hedland, Christmas Island and Macksville customers can be found at:
Medical Vita Diet

Some useful information for our Mudgee and Geraldton customers can be found at:
Tony Ferguson