In September 2009 I sent out a questionnaire to all those on my mailing list.  Although only 80 responded the results were both encouraging and enlightening.  After browsing the statistical results below please scroll down to  read individual (anonymous) comments made by respondents.

Fit For Life Forever Questionnaire results

A) General information: 

1,         Sex:                Male   0         Female      80

2.         Age group:    Under 25    1       25-39  12       40-55    36      Over 55   31

3.         StartingWeight of respondents

Most did not include their BMI so these results do not reflect weight to height ratio

Question only applied to those who had done the course so only (half) 40 responded

One person replied that she didn’t know because she never weighs herself

4.         Degree of involvement with the course:   

5.         Diet history:

Before doing Fit ForLife Forever, which of these other conventional diet methods did you attempt?

 These results reflect the a) The initial weight loss success of most diets and b) the enormously high long term failure rate which larger scientific studies have discovered for all manner of weight loss programmes. 

B)  Weight loss on Fit For Life Forever course  

Only half the respondents completed this section, presumably because they felt it only applied to those who had actually done the course.

1. Out of 40 responses: (one still doing course)

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• It should be noted that:
• 80% lost weight during the course
• 40% continued to lose weight after doing the course
• Only 17.5% regained weight
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•  In all but two instances, wherever a response indicated that either weight had not been lost or it had been regained, the respondent indicated that the course had, nevertheless, been most helpful and would recommend it to others.  By way of explanation they said things like: God had been addressing other areas, such as emotional healing, so that the weight had taken second place or that because of a lifetime of dieting the new freedom had led to initial excesses.
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• Compare these results with the responses to ‘diet history’ above. The contrast is phenomenal!
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• 2.         How long ago did you do the course?
• Almost 50% didn’t respond. They may have read the book only or because they did it on their own did not feel that the question included them. (see  4 in overall assessment for further correlations)
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• Didn’t answer	35
  Still doing it	6
  Up to a year ago	20
  Between 1-2 years ago	13
  2 years ago or more	6

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• 3a.       Issues addressed through the Fit For Life Forever course
• Respondents were asked only to fill in those categories which applied to them personally and to leave non-applicable categories black
• 16 did not answer this question
• 36 selected some issues and left some lines blank
• 28 responded to all issues * (see below)
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• Degree of help received …..	Much	Some	A little	None
  Overcoming a diet mentality	36	17	4	1
  Overcoming temptation regarding food	17	29	2	1
  Portion control	20	26	12	0
  Stress and anxiety eating	27	15	7	3
  Boredom eating	25	24	5	3
  Eating to compensate for loneliness	16	17	9	5
  Unsatisfied spiritual hunger	10	17	11	4
  Low self-esteem	15	13	10	4
  Unresolved pain	16	10	10	5
  Overcoming unhelpful thought patterns	29	14	7	1
  Overcoming bad habits re. food	18	26	8	1
  Controlling Binge-eating	11	13	10	3

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• 3b       *Anomaly 28 people filled in every column.  While for some this may have genuinely reflected the degree and complexity of their issues regarding food, it is thought that others may have misunderstood the question and answered according to the relevancy of each issue to their personal situation. Since the vast majority of these respondents said that the course was both most helpful to them personally and much better than conventional diets,I have included a separate table of responses (below) for these 28 people,substituting the heading ‘degree of help received’ by the words ‘relevancy of topic’.  Without  the necessary clarification the results for this question are less scientific than I would have wished!
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• Relevancy of topic to own life…	Much	Some	A little	None
  Overcoming a diet mentality	11	12	2	1
  Overcoming temptation regarding food	6	13	6	1
  Portion control	8	9	9	0
  Stress and anxiety eating	13	5	4	2
  Boredom eating	11	11	1	2
  Eating to compensate for loneliness	8	6	4	5
  Unsatisfied spiritual hunger	9	6	9	2
  Low self-esteem	10	4	10	2
  Unresolved pain	8	3	7	5
  Overcoming unhelpful thought patterns	11	9	4	1
  Overcoming bad habits re. food	9	8	7	1
  Controlling Binge-eating	6	9	8	2

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• 24 out of 31 ‘None’responses are in this group
• 71Out of 95 ‘a little’ responses are in this group
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• C)       Overall assessment
• 1.         Overall would you say that the teaching was:     68responses
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• Most helpful	Quite helpful	A little help	No help at all
  50	16	2	0

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• 2.         Compared to conventional dieting methods, would you say that the Fit For Life Forever approach to weight regulation was:
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• Much more helpful	Slightly more helpful	About the same	Less helpful
  42	5	5	0

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• 3.         Would you recommend the book/course to others?  Yes    70               No    2
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• 4.         Correlation for 18 people who did course 1 or more years ago, between weight loss maintenance and levels of recommendation
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• Weight after more than one year	Teaching was ‘most helpful’	‘’Much more helpful than other methods	Would recommend
  Weight loss maintained 12 people	7	7	11 (one didn’t respond)
  Some Weight regained 6 people	5	5	5

• Two-thirds of the above, looking back over more than a year, gave the Fit For Life Forever course the highest score for all overall assessment.  Every one of them had either failed to lose weight on other regimes or had regained all the weight they had lost,regardless of the method used.
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• • ADDITIONAL COMMENTS ON RETURNED QUESTIONNAIRES
  • "Just the best and only way to go"
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  • "I recommend it all the time and although I have much further to go, I have found a lot of freedom from food-related negative thinking and unhelpful thinking."
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  • "Once I had established the link with the Holy Spirit I began to make slow progress. I am quick to forgive myself and get back on course and have already lost 10 lbs.... Once involving the Holy Spirit it's a 'no giving up' and just allowing Him to guide me.  I enjoy my food.  Nothing is exempt, just not wise!"
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  • "I am still in the very early stages of reading through the course.  I already feel very encouraged by what I have read and much more relaxed about my approach to 'dieting' which has been an issue all mu life.  I don't get stressed out about it any more and have started  questioning myself more and bringing the issue into my daily prayer."
  • "Loved it, and now I love me!"
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  • "This is just the start of a lifelong journey."
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  • "It was great to find someone that seemed to understand how I felt about my struggles with disordered eating (particularly from a Christian perspective) Although I haven't successfully lost weight yet, I believe that the principles in Sue's teaching are the right way forward and in the long term will help me deal more effectively with my weight and eating issues.  However, it takes quite a long time to reverse many years of poor thinking and behaviour related to eating, but I will press on!"  (Sue writes: I have been a Christian for over 40 years and although I have experienced progressive victory in many areas there is still much room for improvement! We so want a quick fix when it comes to weight, but this isn't God's way. The Bible says that in due season we shall reap if we don't give up!  Keep pressing on!)
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  • "One of the things that all of my ladies have said is that they found things more difficult after doing the course and we have discovered that the eating was much more of a spiritual battle than we had first anticipated.  As a result of this I have encouraged them (and myself) to pray every morning that God would help us to make good choices throughout the day and to avoid disappointments." (Sue writes:  Very sound advice!  I think It does become easier as you go on but even I cannot afford to be complacent!  It is a spiritual battle, but praise God, we're destined to win!)
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  • "Because of FFLF I am now in much better control of what I eat and am making much better daily choices.  I also dealt with some of the problems that were causing me to overeat.  Overall I am very glad that I did it.  It has had a lasting effect on me and I've been able to help others through it too.!"  
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  • "I found the book helpful but would probably benefit from doing the course in a group, but there is no-one else close to me here."    (Sue writes: the more people who join the link-up the greater the benefit will be all round.  Otherwise, approach your leadership about starting a small group in your church.)
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  • "I have struggled with binge-eating for over 30 years with my weight yo-yoing up to 2 stone. I have been on a diet of one sort or another for 35 years and have had a very negative realtionship with food.  I still have a long way to go, but have found the course to be really helpful and am now working through it again with a friend and hoping to pursue the possibility of seeing a group develop in my local church.  Most people would not understand my struggle because I 'appear' to have no issues with food - but little do they know!  Thank you for this course - it is becoming life-transforming for me."
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  • "What I've taken from it is that this is something I need to persevere in (praying before eating; checking 'am I full yet?' not eating beyond that)  I think I understand much better that my body is a temple and am more conscious of when I mistreat both it and me by overeating."
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  • "The course helped with understanding my eating but I found the eating only when hungry very impractical and impossible to do when working in a busy job where I can't stop and eat whenever I want to and having a family to cook for.  It is important to eat together as a family and lead by example."   (Sue writes:  I think you may have come unstuck by turning a principle into a rule.  Only by becoming aware of what hunger and satisfaction feels like can we learn to eat within these bounds. Once we have this information we can tweak how much we eat so that we will feel ready to eat at prescribed times. All this is explained in the book.  Most people find that their anti-social eating only lasts a few days and then they are better equipped to lead by example, eating only what they need, when they need it.)
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  • "Even if you don't need to lose weight this course is so helpful to Christians.  Weight management almost becomes secondary, an added bonus! I'd love to use this with a larger group.  I can see it as a vital outreach tool."
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  "It really was a great course.  I'm just struggling to keep it up on my own." (Sue writes: Join Link-up, find someone else in your church to be an accountability partner; start a church group.Maybe you could  be the answer to your own prayers!)

  "The book was extremely helpful to me and running the course helped me to understand in more depth how it is working for me and for others."

  "I have led the course for approximately 20 people and although I haven't lost weight myself yet, others have. I am starting another group in a few weeks time and trust that I will lose weight this time.  I have, however, remained a stable weight and have learnt so much about myself and allowed God to work in my life in a different way.  I have given the book to work colleagues who are cynical about Christianity, so it's a great tool for witnessing too.  There have been so many challenges within the group: people are being drawn closer to each other and closer to God.  Sue, it's great.  God bless you!" (Sue writes: On diets, success always has to do with the number on the scales, but your allowing God to address the underlying issues is also success and this goes far deeper. God is well-pleased.  Keep it up!)

  "Sue, I think this course might just have changed my life!  I had loads and loads of issues God needed to work on and over the duration of the course I concentrated on letting God work in my mind and my heart...During the penultimate week it became abundantly obvious to me that eating properly was SO much easier than I'd ever made it. I knew this was the time to stop being a person with an eating issue - God has so much more than that planned for me. Since this time I have lost about a stone and am in smaller clothes.   Most importantly, though, is that I am completely happy with my eating habits.  The 'secret eating' has stopped, as has the 'binge eating.  I feel so much happier about it all but am realistic that I need to not be complacent.  I was left with a desire to honour God with my body - actually to honour God with my life."

  "For me I found the course detracted from my normal time for the Lord so I found that I became too diet focussed, which is what I find difficult with other diets.  Some of the devotions were helpful but I found spiritually that with a limited window I wasn't benefiting.  The approach added guilt and a sense of failure that I was letting down the Lord as I was not losing weight. The classes themselves were very informative and an encouragement to many of the group."  (Sue writes:  I appreciate your honesty. One of my aims in writing the book was to reduce the sense of guilt and failure, especially in respect to letting God down, and fortunately many have written stating that this has, indeed, been the case. I pray that as you continue to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness He will show you a way to resolve your issues.Victory in this area is part of your birthright!)

  "I'm convinced this is the only way to overcome any kind of eating disorder.  However, I don't think it can be done without God and a willingness to put Him in control of every single area of your life, which was- for me - the hardest part." (Sue writes:You are 100% right! There is a cost to our self-nature but grace enables us to surrender.)

  "It changed my life.  YES!!"