Reading all the news and great stories and activities through National Obesity Awareness Week, we’re excited to be exploring development needs for this really important topic.  NDR-UK has many resources aiming to support people and prevent obesity through all four weight management service tiers. 

Central to our range is Weight Loss You Can See.  This resource and its supporting materials has been one of our most popular since it was published almost 10 years ago.  Its simple concept ­– a pictorial guide to single portions foods to support individuals plan and prepare meals and snacks – is a valued tool for weight management services groups, sessions and consultations across the UK. 

Over recent years, we’ve been exploring ways to develop the range to improve engagement, impact and offer more variety.  As with all ideas and discussions, these varied massively on both the practical and achievable scales, but a key aim has always been to better support people’s choices, understanding and positive behaviour changes.  From discussions over recent months, a primary topic within this theme has been how to meet the needs of culturally and clinically diverse groups.

We’re excited to start 2021 with a new project working with The London Diabetes Dietitian to adapt and extend Weight Loss You Can See for adults from the Gujarati community.  We plan to explore commonly used foods with a focus on how these are served and eaten via a portion control methodology.  Many teams have already noted their interest in this work – if you’d like to support and/or keep updated with this work, please let us know.

In addition, dietitians from NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde have highlighted the needs of renal patients who need to lose weight.  Potassium and/or phosphate restrictive diets are challenging and even more so when following a calorie-controlled diet.  We would love to learn if and how other services across the UK would like to see a suitable adaptation to meet the needs of this patient group. 

Please send any notes of interest, comments, suggestions or requests to the team who will use your feedback to inform our next steps.