Motivated to lose: Students lose weight with UK program

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Adam Sexton, a kineseology junior, joined the Time to Change weight-loss program at the Johnson Center. The program meets a couple times a week for an hour and does exercise drills for 15-weeks with a personal trainer to help students get fit. Photo by Britney McIntosh | Staff

By Courtney Thomas

A weight loss program at UK is helping students get fit with personal trainers and group motivation.

The Time to Change Weight Loss Program at the Johnson Center is for students with a body mass index of 30 or more willing to dedicate the time and energy to the program. A BMI is a number calculated by the weight of a person in relation to their height. The program holds a maximum of 50 participants in each 15-week session and focuses on group training sessions.

“The 11 certified personal trainers each have a group ranging from three to six students,” said Beth Atnip, fitness director of the Johnson Center. “Each group meets twice a week with their assigned personal trainer and have a third workout session with only their group members.”

The personal trainers are the fitness coaches and motivators for each member of their groups.

“As an obese child, I can understand the challenges and difficulties of trying to loose weight and I wish we could offer the program to more students, but space and personnel limit our abilities,” said Johnny Chase, a personal trainer for the Time to Change Weight Loss Program.

Livestrong.com’s “My Daily Plate,” monitors the eating habits of each participant. The Web site helps to track the amount of calories each member intakes everyday and how much they burn.

“This is a good way of staying honest with yourself, since you have to track that you ate those candy bars we all try to sneak in,” said Nick DeMarchi, graduate student and participant in the program.

Combining a good fitness program and a healthy diet is the purpose of the program and it has had great results in the previous sessions.

“Although such drastic results like this are not typical, we have even had someone lose 50 pounds in 15 weeks,” Atnip said.

The Time to Change Weight Loss Program is free to the students who get accepted into the program, and it shows the participants how to live and continue with a healthy life. The program has already begun for this semester, but it should be available again next year.

“Mentally, it has been great,” DeMarchi said. “I have been waking up not as tired, and staying alert all day and I never thought adding regular workouts into your life would change you mentally as much as it has; it has changed everything.”