LighterLife UK Limited

LighterLife is a diet company. It offer a radical weightloss programme involving the use of food supplements alongside counselling. In 2006 it provided almost £200,000 to The Obesity Awareness and Solutions Trust - around 80% of its budget. LighterLife had previously traded under the name Obesity Lifeline Limited until 20 December 2005. On May 11 2006, LighterLife acquired LighterLife Training Limited as associated company for £3 million. LighterLife's accounts of 31 December 2006 show they made charitable donations of £208,000 with gross profits of £11,820,335.

Activities

LighterLife offers a very low calorie diet in conjunction with intensive counselling to individuals with a Body Mass Index of 29 or above. Clients pay for a diet that consists of food sachets formulated by LighterLife and attend weekly counselling sessions from LighterLife counsellors. This last for 14 weeks for women and 8 weeks for men. The food sachets cost around £66 a week.

Counsellors

LighterLife counsellors are self employed but pay Lighterlife £14,100 to join the LighterLife team. They then undertake a two year training programme but work as counsellors while undergoing the training. Counsellors can, according to Lighterlife, earn up to £40,000 when fully trained

NICE Guidelines

In 2001 Jacqueline Sandra Ann Cox and Bar Hewlett gave evidence to NICE on the use of Orlistat to treat obesity. At that time they were both directors of The Obesity Awareness and Solutions Trust

Health select committee

In 2003 Jacqueline Sandra Ann Cox who was a member of LighterLife gave evidence to the House of Commons Health select Committee in their investigation into obesity on behalf of The Obesity Awareness and Solutions Trust

People

Directors

• Bar Hewlett co-founder 1996. Hewlett was also a director of The Obesity Awareness and Solutions Trust between 2 July 1999 and August 2004
• Jacqueline Sandra Ann Cox co-founder 1996. Cox was also a director of director of The Obesity Awareness and Solutions Trust between 2 July 1999 and August 2004
• Dr Kelly Johnston
• Mandy Cassidy
• Professor David Haslam
• Dr Matt Capehorn
• Dr Hilary Jones
• Annie Wilson

Previous Directors

• Rebecca Moon appointed February 2002, left December 2005
• Paul Edwin Whitmell appointed April 2003, left March 2007. Whitmell was also a director of The Obesity Awareness and Solutions Trust between August 2004 and December 2006
• Rebecca Margaret Hunter appointed December 2005
• Juliette du Plessis appointed December 2005
• P J Chambers appointed December 2005
• C W Freeman appointed December 2005
• S A Jamison appointed March 2005
• Octavia Morley appointed August 2006
• P Neighbour appointed August 2006
• Anna McNicoll appointed November 2001, left December 2006
• Thomas Axel Mauder appointed November 2001, left December 2002

Spokespeople

• Bar Hewlett - Director Bar Hewlett is a Director and Co-founder of LighterLife. Bar is an accomplished industry speaker and an expert on all topics surrounding obesity such as: Long-term weight-management; Cognitive behavioural therapy; Transactional analysis; Psychology of obesity; ‘Trigger’ foods; Ketosis and the science of weight-loss; Medical implications of obesity. Bar has appeared extensively on TV and radio, ranging from local Radio to BBC and GMTV; she has presented at International Obesity Conferences, Guild of Healthwriters Awards and has also contributed to the International Journal of Obesity. She firmly believes that reducing calorie intake alone is not enough to combat obesity, but that it is also vital to change thinking; to change inside as well as outside to better understand and manage food relationships. This combination of the abstinence model and counselling is the extremely powerful foundation of the LighterLife Programme. Bar was the first LighterLife Counsellor and ran LighterLife Counselling sessions until 2004. Bar has an engineering degree and various teaching qualifications from Cambridge University.
• Octavia Morley - Chief Executive Octavia joined LighterLife in May 2006 as Chief Executive. She has extensive experience in the retail industry in roles covering trading, marketing, ecommerce and finance. She was most recently Commercial Director at Woolworths plc. Octavia started her career in investment banking, with seven years at Goldman Sachs International.
• Sara Jamison – Sales & Marketing Director Sara joined LighterLife in January 2007. Prior to this she held Marketing Director roles at The Virgin Cosmetics Company and Iceland Frozen Foods and has a broad commercial background across marketing, sales and operations.
• Juliette du Plessis – Programme Director. Juliette joined LighterLife in 2001. Her responsibilities include managing the corporate medical strategy to ensure compliance with industry best practice as well as ongoing research. She is also the lead on programme development and ensures the LighterLife Programme gives obese clients the best chance of losing and maintaining their weight. She has contributed to cognitive behavioural therapy and transactional analysis materials. Juliette has a background in Psychology and Law and her career to date has involved roles covering sales, recruitment, human resources, operations, marketing and most recently research and development.
• Stuart Keir Web Projects Manager

Medical Advisory Board

• Dr David Haslam, Chair of Medical Advisory Board
• Dr Iain Broom, Medical Director

Affiliations

• British Nutrition Foundation, member
• National Obesity Forum - partner and sponsor

Contact

http://www.lighterlife.com/index.cgi LighterLife Uk Ltd Cavendish House Parkway Harlow Business Park Harlow Essex CM19 5QF

REGISTERED OFFICE CHANGED ON 18/06/05 FROM: LATTON BUSH CENTRE SOUTHERN WAY HARLOW ESSEX CM18 7BL