Originally we wondered why black people especially men are not accessing local NHS weight management programmes and those who do rarely complete the programme.

We noticed that the NHS programme is very Eurocentric not taking culture or social economic status into consideration.

We spoke with Lambeth NHS & Public Health/Active Lambeth and proposed to design a weight management programme for men of colour. 

The paradigm of the programme is to use functional exercises to teach the men physical activities without the use of a gym, to help find correlations between unhealthy eating habits and environmental issues through psychoeducation.

1 hour of functional exercises with a professional personal trainer.

1 hour nutrition of group discussions with a mentor in the psychiatry field.

The work is collaborative between users and mentors.

Every user individual case is taken into consideration for a tailored service.

We were originally funded by Active Lambeth for 12 weeks but Lambeth NHS decided the programme was extremely important for the weight crisis in Lambeth among men of colour and funded the rest for 36 weeks, making it a year-long programme.

It also encourages the men to spend holiday time with their families and practice new learnt skills during breaks.

We conduct health checks for blood pressure, BMI and mental health.

The programme also gives access to other charitable programs such as Men’s Walk and Talk, and Carers4Carers.

Yusuf Muhammad.