Study shows football can tackle obesity

Youth engage in a football game. The sport is considered a good workout with several health benefits including lowering body fat and improving muscle tone. File photo

What you need to know:

All 748 men in the study were offered healthy-eating advice and tips on weight management, but only half were invited to professional football clubs for weekly training sessions.

Football participation is a good way to get men to slim down, a Scottish study published in the Lancet shows. Some 374 overweight soccer fans were invited to take part in a 12-week programme of training sessions at their local football club.

A year later, the men had lost and kept off about 11lb (5kg) each compared with 374 overweight fans put on a waiting list for the programme.

The Glasgow researchers say it proves male-friendly weight loss plans work.

Healthy eating habits
All 748 men in the study were offered healthy-eating advice and tips on weight management, but only half were invited to professional football clubs for weekly training sessions.
At least 13 clubs took part took part in the study.
As well as losing weight when they were on the 12-week programme, nearly 40 per cent of men who participated in the programme maintained a weight loss of at least five per cent of their original body weight 12 months later.

Co-author Prof Kate Hunt, from Glasgow University, said: “Weight management and dieting are often wrongly viewed as women’s issues, meaning that some men do not want to take part in existing weight management programmes.”

Men keen on weight
But given the right circumstances, men are also keen to slim, she says.
“Participants really enjoyed being with other men like them, with a shared interest in football and similar health issues to address. They loved having the opportunity to spend time at the club, using parts of the stadium that they could not ordinarily access.

She adds: “And they appreciated the chance to be encouraged, trained, and informed by the club’s coaches. This model has real potential for the future.”

-BBC