Pharmacies and their staff are well placed to provide advice and support to their customers on making life changes to enable them to lose weight, signpost weight loss programmes and provide advice and recommendations on slimming aids available.

It can be difficult to introduce the topic of weight loss, but there are opportunities in pharmacy to start these conversations with certain groups such as:

• those suffering from digestive problems, for example, indigestion.
• customers who might have joint and back problems due to being overweight.
• women trying to get pregnant who may have purchased ovulation testing kits or folic acid.
• customers enquiring about smoking cessation programmes or nicotine replacement products.
• anyone with co-morbidities, e.g. cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes.

When talking to a customer it is important to adapt your approach to the individual as it will depend where they are on their weight loss journey. Always make sure customers are ready to make the changes to their lifestyle because if they are not they won’t be successful. Here are some suggestions on the advice you could provide:

• Set clear goals with realistic timescales (maximum 0.5 – 1kg per week).
• Create an action plan looking at what small changes can be made.
• Keep a food diary as this can be a good way of monitoring calories as well as behaviour.
• Analyse diet and look at swapping unhealthy with healthy foods.
• Eat a balanced healthy diet, using the ‘eat well plate’ as a guide.
• Plan meals as it makes it easier to control calorie intake.
• Increase activity levels; however this should only be done gradually if someone is inactive.
• Increase water intake as dehydration can be mistaken for hunger.
• Reduce intake of drinks high in sugar or calories especially alcohol.
• Reduce stress levels as this can lead to comfort eating.
• Don’t be put off by lapses in the diet; if you deviate for some reason, start again.
• Consider different ways of losing weight as there isn’t one size that fits all e.g slimming classes - keep contact details of local organisations who offer these classes

By providing the support and advice to customers wanting to, or in the process of losing weight you can make a huge difference and help them achieve their goals. This will dramatically improve their quality of life and develop significant loyalty to your pharmacy.