News

Challenge makes healthier and happier lives

Tue, 01 Sep 2015 05:16:00

An eight-week healthy lifestyle challenge among the Mallee’s Aboriginal communities has confirmed that the key ingredients to weight loss and improved health are motivation, commitment and support.

It was the third Challenge run by the Mallee District Aboriginal Services Tackling Smoking and Healthy Lifestyle Team, and this year involved nearly 90 participants from Mildura, Robinvale and Swan Hill.
Dietitian Jade Klaebe said each participant chose one of three alternative methods for weight loss for the eight-week challenge.
• Healthy You Happy You Challenge— Participants received weekly individual and group sessions with a Dietitian who provided ongoing diet and exercise support. Also included Healthy Cooking Classes, Nutrition Label Reading session, Emotional Eating and Yoga and Meditation.
• OPTIslim Challenge– Participants provided with 2 shake meal replacements per day
• Fitbit Challenge– Participants received a Fitbit activity tracker which provided them with a physical activity goal to reach everyday

“There’s always debate between people about which method is best for weight loss – which people find easiest to use, which is the easiest to stick to and which brings the best results,” Jade said.
“I think from our experience this year, we can say all three of the alternatives were similar in terms of results – that basically, if people committed to a particular weight loss program or concept, it brought positive results.”
Jade said of the participants who fully completed the program, 87% lost weight and 97.5 lost centimetres around their chest, belly and hips.
“We found the Healthy You Happy You challenge had the most successful result in regards to persistence with two-thirds of participants sticking through to the end,” Jade said.
“One of the great achievements of this challenge was that all participants who came to the final weigh-in had lost at least some centimetres from their chest, belly or bum,” she said.
“They also reported increased feeling of self-worth and learned healthy lifestyle skills and habits they believe they will continue to use.”
Jade said the Optislim Challenge recorded the most overall weight loss, but it was due to a few high individual results, rather than the overall team result, with fewer than a quarter able to maintain the shake diet for longer than two to four weeks.
“The Fitbit Challenge was the one participants found the most difficult to stick to, with only a quarter of participants completing the full eight weeks," Jade said.
“Those who did certainly lost weight, but of those who didn’t complete the full eight weeks, some observed that although they were more aware of their physical activity level, it didn’t cause them to exercise more or change their diet.”
There will be a follow-up process in three months to not only monitor the long-term success of the Health Challenge but to also compare the individual results in each challenge.
And the winners are:
Mildura: Denzil Pryor (Optislim)
- Lost 4.5kg (3.7 % of body weight)
- Over 21.5cms in chest navel and hips
Robinvale winner: Matt Chilly (Optislim)
- Lost 8.15kg (6.5% of body weight)
- Over 29 cms in chest navel and hips
Swan Hill winner: Rosalie Connelly (Healthy You Happy You)
- Lost 5.2kg (6.8 % of body weight)
- Over 19.5cms in chest navel and hips