Moroccan women fight obesity with virtual feeding groups

Aziza Boualem-Rabat

Halima looks happy with her healthy weight - and she shares her images with an ideal weight - on the group's Facebook group's Balanced Nutrition page.

Halima's dramatic transformation has impressed her friends, who are following her overweight journey through the group she has joined since her inception in February.

The group has become famous in recent days, having succeeded in changing the lives of many of its members, which numbered about ten thousand, and entitled "Fat to Flat With Sophie" (fat to flat with sophy).

Halima fills the page of the group, which is growing in numbers every day, active and energetic, where she cultivates in the hearts of her colleagues trust and make observations here and there, and even share their daily meals and give an opinion on the value of food and health before eating.

When you talk to this young 30-year-old, she realizes how much extra weight has been inherent in her self for many years. The more she reads a number that annoyed her, she pushed her into tension that led her to emotional eating and she gained weight.

It is predominantly a chorus, which tells Al-Jazeera Net - how she found her silence in the food you eat in large quantities and unconsciously, whenever she was disturbed by her horrible body transformations, her weight rises even more than 100 kg.

Health problems
Halima did not enjoy wearing clothes she loved because of the difficulty of finding the right size, and suffered from many health problems, such as shortness of breath. This made her the most important decision in her life, finally stood on the balance six months after joining the group diet food group, and is now weighing not more than sixty kilograms.

Halima recalls with gratitude that in the weight loss journey she had repeated attempts to get rid of every plus that is not supposed to exist but always fails, until she knew a path of collective will through this group, and made friends that motivated her to exercise and share healthy diets.

By maintaining a healthy diet, Halima said she was gradually weaned from fast food and saturated foods. She focused on barbecue and fat-free foods, added more vegetables and fruits to her table, and laughed. "Lettuce and cucumbers are no different to me wherever I go."

Halima adds that she found in the group room to consult, discuss and learn from the experiences of others. She is motivated by a strong desire to inspire determination, convinced that the experience of Sophie Amal - the group's founder who has succeeded in losing 44 kilograms of weight in a year - holds the hope of others that conquering obesity is not impossible.

Sophie, who has been under the weight of overweight years of her life, explains that she devotes part of her time through the group to stimulate and encourage those who are unable to keep the diet lazy or vulnerable to unhealthy food, using the summary of her experience in the fight against excessive obesity, and sounding This field is organized through various configurations, as well as by the follow-up of dietitians, members of the group.

Transferring weight-loss skills to beginners is one of the best ways to stay informed and gain knowledge.

"They are a force because they share the same thing they do, whether they have had the same experience or are willing to share a healthy diet," she says.

The idea of ​​maintaining a healthy diet to reduce weight or to maintain an ideal weight is the common denominator among the group members, who assert that their presence in the group gave them support and encouragement. This is a mystical opinion of the most important factors for weight loss.

Sophie assures with confidence that the group she created, at the urging of many of her friends to share her successful experience, establishes the idea that collective will is one of the most important elements of the transition from obesity to fitness in the first place. She speaks with enthusiasm - that by engaging seriously, each group in its experience discover new and influential elements that can add to the record of trials, if they are very determined and determined to succeed.

According to Dr. Karim El Wali, dietitian and diet therapist, competitive weight-loss groups can be motivating the will and the desire to achieve the best results.

He recalled the Weight Watchers Diet program, which is based on eating balanced foods, exercising regularly, and creating a supportive and encouraging environment.

But that, according to the governor, does not justify everyone to follow the same types of diets, because each body has its own peculiarities, especially if obesity is associated with a disease. He stressed the need to consult a doctor to follow the appropriate diet fits the health of each person.

Zohra Naimi, a dietitian, warned of food groups lacking credibility, because she believes that shopping for unified harsh diets does not take into account the nature of each person and does not meet the criteria of balanced nutrition that helps in weight loss, saying that the diet is only in the case of morbid obesity and consult a specialist.

On the other hand, she stressed that competitive food groups, if they are healthy in terms of medically agreed balanced food, are a positive way of encouraging and more effective in weight loss.