The safe way to slim (From The Northern Echo)

The safe way to slim

4:07pm Tuesday 17th January 2012 in Health

A North-East gym aims to encourage slimmers and keep-fit fans to put health and wellbeing before the drive to lose weight with the launch of a new facility

DARLINGTON gym First Step 2 Fitness has become the first in the town to open up a wellness centre. Owner Sue Spinks made the move after becoming concerned that many people were trying to lose weight by compromising their health. The aim is to educate customers about healthy living and the importance of body fat reduction without losing muscle.

In the weeks since it opened, the wellness centre has proved popular and the gym is now looking to add six new members of staff to its current team of eight.

The centre runs 12-week inch-loss challenges which educate customers about health and wellness.

A different topic is covered each week during educational, motivational and fun classes, and the biggest “loser” at the end of the challenge wins £300.

The gym also uses special scales to measure the body composition of those enrolled on the course to help them get in shape in as healthy a way as possible.

Last year, the wellness centre helped customers to lose 1,600 inches between them – a total of 40m.

Nicola Green is among the many people who have benefited from visiting the centre and lost 27.5 inches (two-and-a-half stone) after giving up fad diets and quick-fix weight-loss plans.

“Sue has been an inspiration and a great support throughout the challenges I have taken part in,” she says. “I feel great and now wear skinny jeans and no longer hide the hanger size when I walk around a clothes shop. I love clothes shopping and I have also met some great friends.”

“Through the use of our body composition scales, we could see that customers were losing far too much muscle mass,” says Sue. “We therefore adjusted the training to show that healthy living is not just about weight-loss, but about inch-loss and feeling healthier. It’s been a great success and we are now planning a recruitment day to take on some extra wellbeing advisors.”

First Step 2 Fitness offers a wide range of activities and classes including zumba, kettle-a-size and bounce and also provides special programmes for brides-to-be and people who have been referred to the gym by GPs on medical grounds.

• If you are interested in enrolling in a 12-week challenge, call 01325-360040, or for more information go to firststep2fitness.com.