Saudis and expatriates are increasingly flocking to gyms springing up all over the country, adopting the latest fad diet or exercise craze to lose weight.
This has been driven by rising obesity rates in the country, the desire of many young people to marry thin partners, and several firms now hiring people who are not overweight.
However, many experts, and those who have struggled to lose a few kilograms, say fad diets are unlikely to get and keep the weight off.
“A treadmill and a few weight barbells that we purchased early last year are lying idle in a corner of my house without being used for the last several months,” said Othman Al-Otaiby, a Saudi teacher, who has been trying to shed weight for a few years. People can only achieve their weight-loss goals if they educate themselves and “commit to a new changed lifestyle.”
“By examining what’s hot and what’s not, what works and what doesn’t, we’re able to create a strategy for getting fit and staying fit, but we rarely comply with that,” said Dilnawaz Roomi, a senior doctor working at Prince Sultan Military Medical City. “Looking slim is definitely a longing now in this country, but most obese people don’t follow a routine,” said Roomi.
The simple formula is to change “dietary habits, follow an exercise schedule and regulate sleeping patterns,” he explained. Many people practice this three-point formula a few times and then lose interest, he said. They then fail to derive any benefit by burning calories.
“What I have observed is that men and women in Saudi Arabia opt for fads only to use them for a few days, which eventually don’t help,” said Roomi. His views are borne out by statistics showing that a large proportion of Saudis and expatriates are obese in terms of established body mass index measurements, and despite government awareness programs.
A substantial percentage of the 9-million expatriate population suffer from obesity and related ailments. This trend has prompted many people to head to the gym and take up the latest exercise fad. But experts warn that sudden changes in diet must be done under supervision.
Some diet experts contacted by Arab News said that people should not skip meals. They should also not adopt vegetarian diets without a proper exercise routine. “A vegetable diet will only reduce muscle and water content while keeping fat intact. As soon as the diet is stopped, everything returns to square one,” said a gym instructor, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
He said many people use gyms as social hangouts. They spend two hours gossiping and drinking coffee. Others have exercise equipment that they never use. “Many top Saudi and expatriate professionals, I have seen, have small gyms at their homes with treadmills, chest press machines, squat racks, dip bars, flat benches and cable crossovers, but they rarely use them,” said the instructor, who has been working at a leading gym in Riyadh for the last four years.
Many people also want to lose weight to attract partners. Rizwana Khan, a teacher at a local Indian school, said that “gone are the days when a fat or chubby young girl was admired as the best candidate for a bride. Today fat girls are frowned upon. Keeping slim seems to have become what young girls ought to pursue … boys reject obese girls at first sight,” she said.
Lanky, slim girls have more advantages than their more plump counterparts because they are also favored for jobs, some believe. “For this and other reasons, the interest in dieting has grown among Saudi and expatriate girls,” said Nazia Siddiqui, a housewife, who attends a female-only gym.
A Saudi student, Saad Al-Onaizi, a regular at a local gym, who has lost 10.5 kg in one year, said that diet, exercise and real leisure time are the ways to stay on top. He said it is vital for people to keep healthy and have regular check-ups to create a balanced lifestyle. He feels that a sedentary lifestyle combined with high stress levels and longer working hours has caused a range of work-related problems from heart disease to back pain.
A report published recently has shown that people aggravate the problem by opting for fast food during their lunch hours.
Many people do not realize that they are obese until they develop some ailments. According to the Obesity Research Center of the Riyadh-based King Saud University (KSU), “the first thing that you, as a person who is overweight or obese should do, is admit that there is a problem and accept the fact … Acknowledging that truth is the first step towards helping yourself, seeking medical help and eventually treating your condition.”
Many Saudi and expatriate women are obese and doing nothing about it. A study on women’s fitness in Saudi Arabia recently conducted exclusively for NuYu women’s fitness club showed that there are few women walking, exercising or playing a sport. Despite all these alarming facts, it appears that more women are trying to get healthy.
Experts therefore conclude that the only way to become healthier and lose weight is to cut out fatty, junk food, including carbonated drinks. A burger once a month will not make a person fat, compared to a careless lifestyle.
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