ANYONE who wants to lose weight (Fad diets 'make you gain weight', Nov 24) should totally forget the idea of losing weight. You should aim for better health. They are not necessarily the same thing.
Generally speaking there are several things that people do to damage their health, the commonest being consuming too much alcohol, smoking, taking illegal drugs, lack of quality nutrition, stress, lack of exercise, lack of sleep and poor hygeine.
Everyone aiming for better health should deal with all these issues.
The best thing you can do is to get your family doctor or practice nurse to check that you are medically fit to exercise. They can help you with issues such as smoking and drinking. And get a dietician to look at your nutrition. Trust me they are excellent at this. The key is to have a widely varied diet. Fad diets should be avoided like the plague.
Then I would engage in some sort of exercise routine. Quite a few places in the city have a licence for exercise on prescription.
There is a good spread of schemes across the city to enable people to access physical activity referral in a venue that is convenient to them
All schemes now charge a nominal fee for physical activity referral/subsidised access to physical activity and the inclusion criteria is that the patient is over 16, has a health condition that can be managed or improved by physical activity (such as diabetes or depression) and is not achieving the Chief Medical Officer's physical activity guidance of five lots of 30 minutes moderate intensity physical activity each week. Anyone who meets these criteria is eligible and every surgery in the city, and a wide number of other health professionals, have the opportunity to refer.
James Bond, Personal TrainerGot a view? Leave your comment below.READ MORESubscribe to The StarMain news indexYour lettersFeaturesSouth Yorkshire's environmental newsKids ZoneMore business newsMore Rotherham newsMore Doncaster newsMore Barnsley newsLatest sport
