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BUPA buys into weight management company
13 August 2001
As part of a campaign to combat the 2.5 billion* spenteach year on obesity in the UK, BUPA has bought a controlling stake in healthyeating and lifestyle company, Lighten Up.
The company was set up 12 years ago by leading slimmingcoach and motivational trainer, Pete Cohen, and Judith Verity, author and lifeskills consultant, who said: "Lighten Up meets all the criteria onsensible slimming set out in a recent Which? Report on slimming books. Itaddresses the psychology of weight control as well as providing sound advice onexercise and nutrition."
The programme, which will be known as Lighten Up supportedby BUPA, is open to members and non-members of BUPA alike and is available asan eight-week course in regions throughout the UK, or as a book, Lighten Up,with supporting audio cassette.
Alison Platt, deputy managing director of BUPA Membership,said:
"With such sobering evidence of the effects ofobesity on the nation's health, the time is right for us to move into thismarket. BUPA has been concerned about the problem of excess weight for sometime and had been looking for a company which shared our holistic attitude toall-round health. We believe Lighten Up is a practical solution to sensible,long term weight management and our investment adds another facet to ourportfolio of healthcare solutions."
According to a National Audit Office report, obesity hastripled in the last 20 years, with one in five adults classified as obese.Britain is now the fattest nation in Europe and obesity is now one of the mostserious health risks in the UK.
Judith Verity, of Lighten Up, said: "Going on a'diet' is ineffective and can be dangerous - and 95 percent of people who dietregain the weight when it's finished. Sixtyeight percent of people who followthe Lighten Up programme achieve long-term weight loss. Lighten Up is the onlyweight management programme which puts motivation first, because it isimpossible to change eating and exercise patterns unless you start with what'sgoing on in your head."
Last month, BUPA launched www.getoffthecouch.co.uk, a newinteractive teenage health and fitness website. Voted New Media Age's site ofthe week , it is full of information on healthy eating and active lifestyles,with celebrity interviews and a family-friendly 'Get Out' guide with details offun events in local areas.
Visit the Lighten Upwebsite
*The National AuditOffice Report, Tackling Obesity In England 2000-2001. Treating obesity coststhe NHS at least billion a year, with the wider costs in lower productivityand lost output, up to a further 2 billion.