What is the Loozit® Program?

Loozit® is a group weight management program for young people aged between 13 and 16 years who are overweight or obese. Developed by staff at The Children's Hospital at Westmead, the Loozit® program has been carefully designed to incorporate the best available evidence for effective weight management in adolescents.

Aims of Loozit®

Loozit® aims to empower young people with the skills, knowledge and confidence to re-gain control of their body size in a healthy way, build self esteem, and to get more fun out of life!

What is involved?

Young people meet weekly in the late afternoons for 8 weeks for a chat and a snack. Together with their Loozit® group leader, they look at building self-esteem, setting goals, fun ways to become more active, healthy eating, healthier take away food options and stress management. Thereafter, the young people continue to be supported by a reunion of the group once a school term for a period of 2 years.

What is the Loozit® Study?

The Loozit® Study commenced in 2006 and is based on an adolescent weight management program that was piloted with 20 young people in 2005. The results and feedback from this pilot program were very positive and encouraging. For more information about the pilot study, please refer to the Abstract for Pilot Study - published in Nutrition & Dietetics.

The Loozit® Study was designed to evaluate new ways of communicating with adolescents in the Loozit® program. This is the first adolescent weight management program to provide and evaluate the effect of on-going support from group leaders to adolescents in the form of telephone coaching, and regular e-mails and/or SMS messages.

Between May 2006 and May 2009, over 150 young people enrolled in the Loozit® study and are now participating in various stages of the program. Enrolment for the study has now closed.

For more information about the study, please refer to the Loozit® Study Protocol that was published in April 2009 in the online journal BMC Public Health.

Loozit® in Your Community

Plans are now underway to make the Loozit® Program available to adolescents and their parents in the wider community within the next two years.

For more information please contact Kelly Kornman.

Young People Talking About Loozit® - Newspaper and TV Reports

Learn how to Loozit: The surprising bonus when Robert decided to as seen in the Parramatta Advertiser, written by Di Bartok.

Better field yields benefits as seen in the Northern News, written by Helen Gregory, photograph by Michael Szabath.

Fat chance is wholly converted as seen in the Hills News, written by Helen Gregory.

Loozers shed weight and gain confidence as seen in the Northern District Times, written by Melissa Davey, photograph by Brent McGilvary.

Megan lunges into Loozit as seen in the Parramatta Sun, written by Natalie Oliveri, photograph by Wolter Peeters.

Loozit® program shows results for teens - as seen in the Sydney Morning Herald, written by Louise Hall, photograph by Edwina Pickles.

Join Loozit® to lose it - as seen in the Parramatta Sun, written by Natalie Oliveri, picture by Natalie Spiteri

Weight loss plan boosts teen's sex appeal - as seen in the Sydney Morning Herald, written by Natasha Wallace, photograph by Jon Reid

Loozit's a winner - as seen in the Parramatta Sun, written by Natalie Oliveri, photograph by Wesley Lonergan.

Hack: Young and Overweight - as seen on Triple J TV, interview by Ronan Sharkey.

A breath of fresh air - as seen in the Sydney Morning Herald Essentials section, written by Paula Goodyer, photographs by Quentin Jones and Domino Postiglione.

Obesity can be beaten - as seen in the Parramatta Sun, written by Natalie Oliveri, photograph by Natalie Spiteri.

Free program fills students in on healthy choices - as seen in the Hills Shire Times photograph by Brad Hunter.

Weight Problems Tackled - as seen in Hills News, written by Clare Bruce, photograph by Natalie Spiteri.

Sharing the problem of shedding weight - as seen in the Daily Telegraph, written by Catherine Nikas-Boulos, photographs by Bob Barker.

Frequently Asked Questions

How did the name Loozit® evolve?

The young people who participated in the pilot study came up with the name Loozit®. We then conducted a survey with a larger group of young people to determine whether they liked the name or whether they would like to suggest another name for the program. The name Loozit® was favoured by the majority surveyed.

What is the significance of the logo?

The green colour was chosen because it symbolises young people and health. The orange colour symbolises fun and energy. The 'i' represents the young person enjoying and being victorious in living a healthy active lifestyle.

How is the Loozit® program different from other programs?

Loozit® is different from other weight management programs as it has been specifically designed with young people in mind. The program has been developed to be run in the community, in adolescent friendly facilities.

When the program was initially piloted in 2005, focus groups were held so that the young people and their parents could comment on what they liked, what they did not like and ways the program could be improved. These suggestions were incorporated into the current program. The study is novel as it includes evaluations of the program by the young people themselves.

The program involves both adolescents and their parents. By doing this, families can support the young person through their Loozit® journey and make changes together.

Want to know more?

Please contact Binh Nguyen on (02) 9845-1224
Or contact Vanessa Shrewsbury on (02) 9845-3015
Or email loozit@chw.edu.au