A fat-fighting campaigner from England has come out in support of campaigns aimed at helping people to shed the pounds and get healthier.

Jane DeVille-Almond, a director of the UK's National Obesity Forum, was on the Island last year to launch a series of workshops as part of Government's Healthy Weight Action Plan.

She has worked closely with Sarah Burrows, of the Diabetes Association, to try to tackle the high rate of obesity and Type II diabetes in Bermuda.

Speaking to The Royal Gazette, Mrs. DeVille-Almond said people needed to start being honest about weight and less polite and she came out in support of The Royal Gazette's Have a Heart Campaign and has also joined the Live Healthy Bermuda 100 Day Challenge.

She said: "It's great when we lose weight everyone tells us we look so good and tell us we've lost so much weight. "But what do they say when we've gained weight? Oh you look so healthy.

"What we need to say is you've put on weight. You don't need to be rude about it, but someone has to say it."

The nurse consultant's efforts in the UK have included working closely with traditionally obese groups, such as long-distance truck drivers, while she has operated from the back of barber shops so that people can get weight advice when they go for a haircut.

She had been in Bermuda following a 2006 Bermuda Health Survey, which showed 30 percent of five to ten-year-olds and 23 percent of adults are obese.

This survey was also widely believed to be an underestimation, because it was a telephone study which relied on participants being honest about their weight and height.

Those fears were backed up by a series of health screenings at TCD, which showed 47 percent were obese, more than double the Bermuda Health Survey figure.

And of those obese people, a staggering 96 percent had not described themselves as obese when asked, prompting concerns about the way people think about their health.

It takes each of us looking in the mirror and admitting to ourselves we are overweight, according to Mrs. DeVille-Almond, otherwise nothing can be done.

She said: "It's like drug addicts. There is no point in telling them to stop drinking. They won't.

"It takes someone admitting they need help to do anything about it and it takes someone who is overweight to admit it and want to do something.

"In the UK people want to lose weight to look better, but in Bermuda it seems to be OK to be overweight."

Mrs. DeVille-Almond has a very personal reason to be an advocate for this issue with most of her relatives dying before they were 60-years-old.

Though it was not her main drive into the business of health lifestyles, it was definitely a motivator and more because of how it affects the families when their loved-ones are gone.

Without taking care of weights, hearts and being healthier — families could lose their father's, just like Mrs. DeVille-Almond did.

But she warns, it is not an easy process and takes dedication to a healthy lifestyle.

She said: "There is no such thing as weight loss. There might be an easy weight loss, but it's all about maintenance that is hard.

"You have to embody it in to your lifestyle because a big weight loss can easily be an even bigger weight gain."

That is why she encourages Bermudians to make changes such as using smaller plates for meals, therefore smaller servings or arm exercises at their desk. She is especially encouraged by the dedication to healthier lifestyles by the Diabetes Association, the Government and sees a real chance to turn things around for Bermuda with the 100 Day Challenge.

"Everybody can do it and do it at the level that is good for them," she said, "It's great getting people excited about exercising and eating healthier.

"But it's about having people who don't give up. What's great about an Island though is it takes so little to change things around."

The 100 Day Challenge has attracted more than 2,000 people and more than 230 teams in its two weeks and The Royal Gazette's Have a Heart Campaign has garnered support from various bodies on the Island.

The campaign, however, is looking for more stories about weight loss success, if you have a health vending machine or if your office has a healthy initiative in place.

If so contact Robyn Skinner at rskinner@royalgazette.bm or Mikaela Ian Pearman at mpearman@royalgazette.bm.