Founded in 1969, Slimming World is the UK’s most advanced and effective weight management organisation. With thousands of weekly groups, we support millions of people each year to eat more healthily and adopt a more active lifestyle.
Slimming World’s approach is based on a deep understanding of how people living with overweight or obesity feel, coupled with an unwavering commitment to helping them achieve their goals. For more than 55 years, our programme has been developed and refined in line with the latest thinking on nutrition, exercise and the psychology of behaviour change.
Our friendly, welcoming groups are run by a network of Consultants, all of whom have successfully lost weight with Slimming World, and who work in their local community. Consultants receive specific training in the dietary aspects of weight management, the role of physical activity and, importantly, the effective facilitation of behaviour change. There is a strong management support structure with an emphasis on quality and consistency of service provision.
How Slimming World works
Our effective weight loss programme integrates three key principles to help people adopt a healthier lifestyle:
At Slimming World, we create an environment that makes it easier for people to make healthy choices and changes. Unconditional, caring support is the key to maintaining a healthier lifestyle and achieving real weight loss results that last.
Discover the Slimming World plan
Group support to facilitate lasting behaviour change
Unique to Slimming World is powerful group support, skilfully designed to meet the needs of members. With the guarantee of confidentiality, compassion, empathy and empowering adult-to-adult guidance, members make step-by-step changes to their diet and activity levels.
Individual groups very much reflect the needs of their particular community. Slimming World Consultants are themselves members of the local community and facilitate group discussion and the sharing of ideas relevant to the area’s population, the group demographic and individual circumstances, eg financial constraints or cultural preferences.
The majority of sessions are held outside normal working hours, across a range of days and times. People working shifts are able to access different groups according to their shift pattern. Groups are usually held in easily accessible venues such as church and school halls, community centres and social clubs. This encourages a broad-based membership, including those people traditionally considered ‘hard to reach’ by health programmes.
Our data shows Slimming World’s membership comes from across all socioeconomic backgrounds, demonstrating that deprivation is not a major barrier to attendance.
Watch what happens in group
Slimming World groups have the expertise and experience to help in behaviour change. They are also another brick in the wall of social support that is necessary to tackle obesity in the UK.
Andy Hill, Professor of Medical Psychology, Leeds University School of Medicine