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Getting support while you lose weight

Mon, 06 Jul 2026 17:36:49 GMT

Join the digital programme which helps to change your habits

What is the Sheffield NHS Digital Weight Management Programme?

The NHS Digital Weight Management Programme is a 12-week online programme that helps eligible people develop healthier eating habits, increase physical activity and work towards a healthier weight. Because it is delivered online, you can access support at a time and place that suits you.

Free Support That Fits Around Your Life

One of the greatest benefits of the programme is its flexibility. Whether you're working full time, managing family commitments, or simply prefer to learn at your own pace, the digital format allows you to engage with the programme when it works best for you. The service is completely free for eligible patients.

The More-life 12-week group programme offers a psychologically informed model. Each session lasts for one and a half hours.

Each week, you’ll focus on a different topic. These range from learning about nutrition and portion sizes to understanding the importance of sleep.

Practitioners don’t tell people what to do; instead, you will be guided and supported to understand how thoughts, emotions and feelings influence decisions. We’ll help you develop strategies to make healthier choices, cope with setbacks and manage specific triggers like stress.

Working Alongside Other Weight Loss Support

The NHS Digital Weight Management Programme can be an excellent addition to a wider weight management journey. It can run alongside other weight loss interventions , providing extra education, motivation and support while individuals engage with other lifestyle, community or clinical services.

Many people find that combining digital support with other interventions helps reinforce positive habits, improve confidence and maintain momentum towards their health goals.

Why Maintaining a Healthy Weight Matters

Living with obesity can increase the risk of several health conditions, including:

Type 2 diabetes
High blood pressure
Cardiovascular disease
Joint problems
Some cancers
Mental health challenges

Taking steps towards a healthier weight can lead to improvements in overall wellbeing, energy levels and long-term health outcomes.

Who Can Access the Programme?

The NHS Digital Weight Management Programme is available for eligible Sheffield individuals with:

A BMI over 30 and diabetes, high blood pressure, or both.
A BMI of 27.5 or above for people from Black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds who are at increased risk of developing conditions such as type 2 diabetes at a lower BMI.

Access requires a smartphone, tablet or computer with internet access.

Taking the First Step

Weight loss isn't about quick fixes—it's about creating realistic, lasting habits. The NHS Digital Weight Management Programme offers practical support, expert guidance and the flexibility to help people make positive changes that fit their lifestyle.

If you're looking for additional support on your weight management journey, speak to one of the Wicker healthcare professionals to find out whether a referral to the Sheffield NHS Digital Weight Management Programme could be right for you.

What to eat when losing weight with Mounjaro or Wegovy

Mon, 06 Jul 2026 17:11:35 GMT

Making sure you eat well is the key to your success when taking weight loss meds

To eat well on Mounjaro (tirzepatide), follow a balanced diet focused on lean proteins and high-fiber vegetables to prevent muscle loss and stay full. Because Mounjaro slows digestion, eat small, frequent meals to avoid feeling sick.

1. Build a Balanced Plate

Protein (1/4 of your plate): Choose chicken, turkey, fish, eggs, or lentils.
Vegetables (1/2 of your plate): Fill up on broccoli, spinach, or peppers.
Carbohydrates (1/4 of your plate): Pick wholegrain options like brown rice, oats, or sweet potatoes.

2. Foods to Limit or Avoid

High-fat and fried foods: Foods like chips and full-fat dairy take longer to digest and can make you feel bloated and sick.
Spicy and sugary foods: These can trigger acid reflux and indigestion.
Alcohol: Alcohol can cause blood sugar drops and make stomach side effects worse.

3. Managing Common Side Effects

For nausea: Eat plain, bland foods like dry toast, crackers, or plain white rice. Sip clear fluids and ginger tea.
For constipation: Slowly add more high-fiber foods (like oats and beans) to your diet and drink plenty of water.
For acid reflux: Stop eating 2-3 hours before bedtime and avoid eating large portions.

Where to start exercising? links to Sheffield exercise classes

Mon, 06 Jul 2026 16:38:50 GMT

Where to start if exercise is not your thing

Sometimes the thought of beginning an exercise programme can make you want to turn tail and run in the opposite direction. We all know its really important to exercise, that you are more likely to live longer in a happier way if you exercise regularly. However for a lot of us that is easier said than done. Starting exercise if you haven't done any for a while can be quite a challenge so we have pooled together ideas to make it a little bit easier.

Choose exercise you don't hate

If you know you have always hated the gym, that is not the place for you to restart exercise. We are lucky to be in Sheffield where there are lots of options. We have swimming pools, gyms, the peak district, cycle paths, ice rinks, steep streets, football pitches, cricket leagues, athletics, zumba, pilates, the list goes on. If you've always fancied yourself as the next Mo Farah then you could try the couch to 5k challenge. Just make sure you choose an activity where there is a chance of success, and if you don't like it, try something else instead.

Start slow and regular

The point of starting exercise is you want to do it regularly so you need to still be able to move the day after your first outing. Start off with 5 or 10 minutes at least three times a week and then after a week add 5 minutes on. If you decide that you can walk up the steep hill at Norfolk park three times a week, do it slowly the first time - just enough that you breathe harder for 5 minutes - if you don't get to the top the first time that's ok. Just keep doing it and eventually you will. Once you've got that you can try doing it twice or moving faster.

Don't skip a week

This is the tough one. Its really easy to think, 'I can't fit this into my day', or 'I'm not feeling so good'. Some days definitely will be worse than others and it might be you have to do something different, or less. The important bit is to keep at it. If you have to miss a day, do your exercise the next day. Lots of people have demands on their time, with children, work, people they care for, but its important to make sure your health is a priority too. Even if you don't have time for the steep hill in Norfolk park, you might be able to do a short youtube fitness class in the kitchen - you could get the kids to join in.

Exercise options in Sheffield:

‘Smaller doses of exercise are a miracle cure’ - Guardian article

Fri, 26 Jun 2026 10:20:23 GMT

‘Smaller doses of exercise are a miracle cure’: 14 expert tips to protect your joints from the Guardian newspaper

Life is much easier if you look after your hips, knees, elbows and shoulders – especially as you get older. Rheumatologists and orthopaedic surgeons explain how to work out, what to eat and how to talk to your doctor

Sarah Phillips

Wed 24 Jun 2026 12.00 BST

Read this article at ‘Smaller doses of exercise are a miracle cure’: 14 expert tips to protect your joints | Life and style | The Guardian

Our bodies are incredible machines, but we can take the mechanics for granted until something goes wrong. How can we maintain healthy joints throughout life and avoid surgery? Here, rheumatologists and orthopaedic surgeons give their tips …

Move as much as possible

According to the UK chief medical officers, we should all be getting 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise (such as brisk walking or cycling) a week, or 75 minutes of vigorous activity (such as running). However, says Prof Scarlett McNally, a consultant orthopedic surgeon at East Sussex Healthcare NHS trust, about 27% of adults in England “do less than 30 minutes a week of exercise that gets them out of breath. If you can increase that just a little, it has massive health gains.”

Arthritis – joint pain and stiffness – is likely to reduce as sport and exercise participation increases, says Prof Alister Hart, an orthopaedic surgeon at University College London. “Clearly there are caveats,” he says, pointing out that some football and skiing injuries can increase the risk of arthritis, for example. “But on a population level, the more sport, activity and exercise we do, the less arthritis should happen.”

McNally points out that “change is really difficult for people,” especially if they are already experiencing problems in their joints. Osteoarthritis – the most common type of arthritis, which occurs when the protective cartilage around the bones breaks down – is no longer referred to as ‘wear and tear’, she adds, “because joints are better if you use them. Stay active and build up your muscles.” Through this you can “keep them strong and it can reduce the pain to keep them moving”.

“When patients have a lot of pain in their joints, muscles or tendons, then exercise can be a frightening thing to engage with because it might make the pain worse,” says Dr Elizabeth MacPhie, a consultant rheumatologist in Preston. “We have to support patients to understand how to look after their joints when they have arthritis, not to be fearful of doing exercise, and find the right type of exercise for them.”

There are resources online, such as the website Moving Medicine , which can help you to get started.

Pay attention to aches and pains

Generally, movement is medicine, says Hart. “As an orthopedic surgeon doing a ward round, you see people recovering from hip fractures. What’s the first thing you do? You say, ‘We need to get you up and moving. It will help you heal your tissues by releasing chemicals that will improve your healing.’”

Try low-intensity movements first, such as stretching or cycling, he says. “Over a few weeks, you’ll realise whether you can do things. If you really can’t do anything, then clearly you need to get help. The red flags are pain waking you at night for many nights and a need for painkillers for more than a week.”

A glute bridge … bend your knees to 90 degrees and push your pelvis to the ceiling.

Hart says that the ultimate exercise is glute bridges: “I tell all of my patients that you can do zero harm with glute bridges, and almost anybody can do them – people who are recovering from fractures, hip replacements and back surgery. When you are lying on your back, bend your knees to 90 degrees and push your pelvis to the ceiling. If you do it with an exercise band across the lower thighs, then you start working your gluteal muscles, and that will help both your hips and your knees.”

… and squats.

Squatting is equally crucial. “If you fall over and you can’t get up, you’ll become dependent on others very quickly,” explains McNally, “so the glutes and the thigh muscles are very important.” These can be strengthened through squats. Alternatively, “if you’ve got stairs, going up and down them is really good. I teach people sitting-to-standing exercises, because it builds up the same muscles as a squat.”

Do parkrun

“Impact sports such as running often get a bit of a bad name, with the assumption that they are damaging,” says Hart. “In fact, your skeletal muscles and tendons need impact to keep them healthy. If you go into space as an astronaut, you come back wobbling all over the place, because muscles can’t work: you’ve got osteoporosis just from being in space for a month .”

Hart describes running 5k as a “Goldilocks dose”, meaning not too much or too little. You can even take part by walking , says McNally. A healthy living regime, she says, “has to be a habit; it has to be something people just do, otherwise people don’t do it. That’s why parkrun works.”

“Some people like to do long distances or lots of running,” she says. This is fine so long as your body allows you to do it without injury. It’s worth remembering that “the benefits from exercise stop at an hour a day . Beyond that there aren’t so many benefits. Smaller doses really are a miracle cure . ”

If you can’t run, swim

‘Low-impact aerobic activities such as swimming appear to reduce pain.’ Photograph: A Bello/Getty Images

“Some activities which are high impact have historically been seen as bad for joints,” says Dr Matthew Hutchinson, a consultant rheumatologist in London and author of Are You Really the Doctor? “You’ll probably have runners who say the contrary, and they may actually be correct – there isn’t good evidence running will lead to long-term joint problems, unless you get injured. Low-impact aerobic activities such as swimming, however, definitely appear to improve function and reduce pain.”

“If people are experiencing pain in their joints, then getting into the water and doing exercise is always easier,” says MacPhie. “Not just swimming, but walking up and down in the pool or doing gentle stretches in the water is a good way to get going.”

Don’t forget to stretch afterwards

Many of us don’t bother to stretch after a workout. “Don’t make it a big deal,” says Hart. “Even if you do two minutes of stretching, that is better than nothing.” He cautions against pushing yourself too far: “Take your joints through their normal range of motion.”

Make time for strength training

Strength training – weights and resistance work – is “the number one way in which you can prevent arthritis. It is never too early or too late,” says Hart.

Even if you are heading for a knee or hip replacement, strengthening is still a good plan. “I’ve had two hip replacements and for the last one I was a day case because my muscles were super-strong,” says McNally. “I couldn’t rotate my hip – it was horribly painful because of the arthritis – but I could go on my electric bike and cycle for an hour, which kept my muscles going, and that meant I could get out of hospital sooner.”

Preparing for surgery is crucial , says McNally: “The big thing is exercise. Just because it hurts when you stand up from a chair the first time doesn’t mean it is going to keep on hurting. Find something you can do – it is likely to be cycling, static cycling or swimming. Keep your muscles strong and practise balancing on the good leg. If you can balance, then you can get to the toilet and back, and you won’t end up stuck in hospital.”

Conditioning is key

Strength training combined with conditioning – cardiovascular or aerobic activity – is essential for avoiding injury, says Hart. “All professional sports people know that, but it’s about feeding it down to us lot who are having a go and trying to live a slightly healthier life.”

He holds the view that “you’ve got all the bendy people in the yoga studios – they don’t need more bending and stretching, they need more strength. And you’ve got all the Muscle Marys in the gym – they need a bit more stretching, conditioning and mobility work. Everyone should swap.”

“The more strength you have in the muscles that surround and support a joint, the less strain is often put on that joint to maintain stability,” adds Hutchinson.

It is not just your joints you need to think about, says McNally. “It’s also your bones. Resistance exercises and weights are proven to keep your bones strong and prevent fractures.”

Eat with your joints in mind

Focus on the basics: fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, food cooked from scratch.

“Try to eat a healthy, non-processed diet, with lots of whole foods, fresh fruit and vegetables,” says Hutchinson. “It is very likely that dysregulation of your gut microbiome has a knock-on effect on the development and the severity of inflammatory arthritis [such as rheumatoid arthritis, where the immune system attacks the tissue around joints] and probably other types of arthritis.” He adds that the evidence is quite poor on what specific kind of diet is best for joints, advising instead to focus on the basics: “Fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, food you cook from scratch … doing those things will help your health across pretty much every domain.”

Vitamin D and K are supplements worth taking, says Hart, “particularly in the UK, in winter; it probably helps every single one of your musculoskeletal tissues.” MacPhie says standard supplements are OK, but the best option is D3 (cholecalciferol) at a dose of 400 IU in the winter.

Cod liver oil is also helpful for joints. “It is rich in omega-3 essential fatty acids, which have some anti-inflammatory properties, although we wouldn’t advise this as a treatment for inflammatory arthritis,” says MacPhie.

As for other supplements that are said to help joints, such as creatine for muscle building and glucosamine and chondroitin supplements for osteoarthritis , the experts were cautious about their use.

Slim down if you need to

If you are overweight, losing weight can reduce the strain on joints, says Hutchinson. “There is also some evidence that excess body fat contributes to driving inflammation, and so there is a lot of interest in the dual role of GLP-1 drugs. I’m not saying everyone should take GLP-1 for their joints, but there is probably the benefit that the reduction in weight reduces strain on the joint and inflammation related to metabolic dysfunction.”

Work on describing your pain

Rheumatologists see a lot of patients with unexplained pain. “Describing pain is very difficult,” says Hutchinson. How can you convey it accurately to your doctor? “Try to keep a diary of when it comes on, what time of day, how long it lasts for. Is the pain located in the joint specifically? Is there anything that makes it better or worse? This can ensure that you have the same level of understanding.”

Quit smoking

“For pretty much any disease I can think of, but certainly for rheumatoid arthritis, don’t smoke,” says Hutchinson, as it worsens the condition . “Rheumatoid arthritis is very strongly associated with smoking and the disease’s severity.”

Be careful what you wear on your feet

Carbon-plated shoes have broken all running world records: “What they are doing is changing biomechanics to get an advantage,” says Hart. The downside to this is: “It changes the forces in your body, and if you haven’t strengthened for it, you may have some other knock-on effects you didn’t expect.” There is concern around the potential for stress fractures . “The amount of data is really small but there’s a change, and that change is good for speed, but it does risk an injury. Barefoot shoes have the same risk . There is no shoe that is ideal to wear all of the time.”

“People shouldn’t need expensive kit to start being active,” says McNally. “Any footwear that is comfortable and affordable is fine.”