WITH around two-thirds of Hampshire adults now overweight, an easy-to-use online tool has been launched to help anyone struggling to shift the pounds.

Being extolled by Hampshire County Council, POWeR has been developed by experts at Southampton University and is now available free to Hampshire residents.

Patricia Stallard, the county council’s executive member for public health, said: “During trials, POWeR helped a number of people to lose weight. It enables you to become your own personal health coach, providing new tools to use each week.

“It supports you to work out which of these tools fit with your lifestyle, helping you to incorporate healthy eating and physical activity into your routine, so that you not only lose weight, but maintain a healthy weight going forward.”

Dr Judith Joseph, a Research Fellow at the University of Southampton who worked on the project, adds: “POWeR is different to other weight loss programmes. It provides advice on diet and physical activity, but its main focus is on helping people to develop self-regulation skills. The programme contains ‘POWeR tools’, which teach cognitive and behavioural techniques to help people increase their motivation, gain confidence to lose weight, and change their behaviour in the long-term.”

Anyone over 18 can access POWeR for 12 months once they have registered at powerhants.lifeguidehealth.org.