A SCHEME that has helped patients eat more and still lose weight could be the way forward for overweight people in the North-East.

The success of the Trim and Slim programme, pioneered in the Redcar and Cleveland area, could be a model for the rest of the region.

Faced with the mounting costs of treating the estimated 20,000 obese people living within the boundaries of the Langbaurgh Primary Care Trust, the local NHS has been running novel weight loss programmes.

Bev Harland, a 30-year-old mother of two from Liverton Mines, near Loftus, East Cleveland, lost three stones after joining the Trim and Slim group in Skinningrove.

"I have tried everything to lose weight but this is the only thing that works," said Ms Harland, whose weight went down from 17st to 14st after three months.

"It is all about eating more healthily, not dieting. I am eating more fruit, vegetables and salad but I still eat whatever I want, only I try to find a low-fat alternative," she said.

Wendy Gray, the community development worker in charge of the Trim and Slim programme, said: "We try to give people basic information about healthy eating. We teach people to read labels. We don't do diets, we don't count calories."

Those referred to the courses by a GP are taught to eat more of the right kind of food.

"Many of the people are actually eating more food than they were before the course started," she added.

A total of 166 people have been through the programme, almost everyone has lost weight.

"They also get an hour of exercise provided by adult education, including yoga and gentle exercise," she said.

Recently, the scheme received additional funding and is planning to expand.

The programme was part of the launch of Langbaurgh PCT's obesity strategy at Rushpool Hall, Saltburn, on Thursday.

The event featured a range of speakers, including Dr Ian Campbell, who chairs the National Obesity Forum.

Dr Campbell said: "The most important thing a health professional can do is to be supportive and sympathetic. Offer advice on diet and activity levels and consider giving medication which is safe and effective."

Dr Campbell, from Nottingham, said: "Doctors and nurses should consider that sometimes these problems are not caused because the patient is greedy and lazy, but because there are very powerful factors influencing them towards weight gain."