AN AYR medical practice has helped transform male patients health after they enrolled them on a 12 week weight loss program.

Staff at Fullarton Medical Practice have noticed a significant improvement in the health of men who once risked developing diabetes due to obesity.

With weight loss classes often a taboo for older men, practice nurses and doctors were keen to break the mould, and teach old dogs new tricks.

Robert Sym, 80 signed up last year and says the course “changed his life” after he thought his “days of exercise were over”.

Robert says the course also helped his loneliness after losing his wife four years before.

He said:”It changed my, life it really did. It was really excellent, the two boys who run it are great.

“I suffer with my legs and can only walk a certain distance, at the start I was walking once round the football pitch, by the end I could walk four times round it.”

“The nurse recommended it for me. I was really lonely after my wife passed, they all encouraged me and I never missed a night.”

Robert managed to lose nearly two stone going from 16 stone to 14.7 through the programme, and is determined to keep things going with his new found sense of nutrition.

He added: “I used to eat a lot of fatty foods. I am eating healthier now. I am cooking a lot for myself.”

Practice nurse Sandra Wylie gave the programme high praise and has noticed the difference in men’s health.

She said: “It’s just been fantastic, people have lost weight, reduced their blood sugars and the number of medications they were taking.

“I can’t praise it high enough. It also helps the social side of things, we had one guy who only got out the house one night a week to come to this. It was moving.”

Tracy Moynihan, NHS Ayrshire & Arran Weight Management Dietitian said:“Weigh to go is a really positive weight-loss initiative that is helping men who have been struggling to keep their weight at a healthy level. With Ayrshire obesity statistics currently higher than the Scottish average, Ayr United are playing an important part in getting Ayrshire top of the league in terms of losing weight.”