Arden Healthcare has introduced to the UAE a natural weight loss programme projected as a new and total approach to the problem of weight management.

Arden said its weight management technique combined the benefits of the highly successful Actrim slimming supplement, now available from all major pharmacies in the UAE, and the Actrim Slimming Club support programme.

"The result is a distinctive weight loss programme, developed over 10 years of careful study, which provides the right motivation to not only lose weight, but also to follow a healthier diet and get fit. It is simple and can be done at home, in privacy," the company said in a statement.

Officially launching Actrim in the UAE, Helen Evans, marketing director of Arden Healthcare, said: "The majority of people who want to lose weight these days know what food to eat. But maintaining the necessary lifestyle change to sustain weight loss is what makes the Actrim method different."

The company claimed the Actrim - acronym for Active, Trim and Slim - supplement and slimming club combination removed the need for rigid low-calorie diets, which, it stressed, had been proven in 95 per cent of cases to trigger a prolonged, losing battle with weight.

Conceding that weight loss had never been easy, Evans said the majority of people require motivation rather than a rigid diet sheet.

"Doctors, nutritionists and fitness experts can provide advice on diet and exercise," she said. "Individuals, however, need confidential advice like that which is provided conveniently, via e-mail, to those registered with the Actrim Slimming Club. In a study at Brown University in America, it was shown that people trying to lose weight were 40 per cent more successful if they had access to e-mail support than those who did not, and this is the foundation of the Actrim Slimming Club."

The members-only web site provides access to the latest general and confidential personalised information and advice on weight management from qualified specialists in diet, nutrition, and exercise. The web site also provides recipes to be enjoyed by the whole family, as well as a vast variety of helpful tips for successful weight management. Members without Internet receive support packs by mail.

"Actrim is not a drug, nor is it a diet or meal replacer. It does not rely upon calorie counting or depriving the body of essential food, and it has no side-effects, but begins the process of losing weight without dieting," the company said.

"Thousands of people have lost weight using the Actrim programme. In the 1990s it was the leading slimming supplement available in the Middle East."