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About the Program

As a leading nonprofit for strengthening community through youth development, healthy living and social responsibility, the Y believes that all people should be able to live life to its fullest, healthiest potential. In the YMCA's Diabetes Prevention Program a trained lifestyle coach will introduce topics in a small classroom setting and encourage participants as they explore how healthy eating, physical activity and behavior changes can benefit their health.

How it works:

• The 12-month group-based program consists of 16 core sessions, followed by monthly maintenance sessions led by a trained lifestyle coach who facilitates a small group of people with similar goals.
• Discuss topics such as healthy eating, increasing physical activity, reducing stress, problem solving, and much more.
• Stay motivated to maintain progress towards program goals with monthly maintenance sessions.

Program Goals:

• Lose 7% of your body weight
• Gradually increase your physical activity to 150 minutes per week.

You will do this by learning strategies for:

Healthy Eating—Eating smaller portions, reducing fat in your diet and discovering healthier food options has been proven to help prevent the onset of type 2 diabetes¹.

Increasing Physical Activity—Studies have repeatedly shown that moderate physical activity (walking, swimming, mowing the lawn) for as little as 30 minutes, five days a week can help improve your blood pressure, raise your good cholesterol and prevent blood flow problems².

Losing Weight—It has been shown that reducing your body weight by even a small amount (as little as 7%) can offer tremendous benefits for people at risk for diabetes³.

Based on research funded by the National Institutes of Health, the program has been shown to reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by as much as 58%. The reduction was even greater, 71%, among adults aged 60 years or older.

¹ http://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/consumer/eatright.htm
² http://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/consumer/beactive.htm
³ http://www.cdc.gov/nutrition/downloads/R2P_life_change.pdf