KRTS - The Art of Losing Weight

Project Information

KRTS

Grant agreement ID: 683510

DOI

10.3030/683510

Project closed

EC signature date 29 May 2015

Start date 1 June 2015

End date 30 November 2015

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Europe In A Changing World - Inclusive, Innovative And Reflective Societies

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

KRTS INTERNATIONAL LTD
United Kingdom

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - KRTS (KRTS - The Art of Losing Weight)

Reporting period: 2015-06-01 to 2015-11-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

KRTS – The Art of Losing Weight TM is an interactive online psychological boot camp that is supported by audio and video. It takes people who are struggling with their eating from feeling frustrated and helpless, to having a focused and empowered mind-set, enabling them to follow an individual blueprint detailing the necessary action to achieve their weight loss goal.

The idea for the programme was developed by two very experienced psychotherapists, Cath Kerr and Dr Liz Royle, both of whom are accredited by the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy, EMDR Europe Approved Consultants and internationally published authors. In addition Cath has also had personal experience and successfully lost over 4 stones. As a result this programme is a rich combination of both professional and personal experience.

Objectives of the online programme:

• To educate users, in simple, yet innovative terms, about the neuroscience of successful weight loss, explaining how individuals can get stuck in old patterns.
• To help users identify the unique steps that they can take to facilitate a change in their mind-set and attitude to weight loss.
• To assist users to identify SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic & Time bound) goals and the blocks to achieving them.
• To enable users to make steps towards achieving their individual goals.
• To create a blueprint for recovery, which allows the individual to detail the necessary action to achieve their weight loss goal, manage any relapse, and look at their future maintenance.
• To offer an online programme which can be accessed virtually from anywhere in the world.
• To be accessible to people who would not or could not access support in another way.
• To drive the business forward into this area, taking it out to new markets and creating jobs.
• To talk and explore issues in other territories for long term plans.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

"The first 3 months of the project was spent developing the prototype, and building it onto a basic digital platform. During this time we also recruited and trained our coaches to deliver the project. We then sourced participants to take part in the feasibility study. (Full details of activities can be provided)

The feasibility study included having a test number of 22 users who completed the programme and completed an attitude scale before and after in order to measure their progress.

Results

We are passionate about being creative innovators of life changing programmes and we are delighted to report that preliminary results of the Art of Losing Weight both met and exceeded our expectations. We expected that people would feel less frustrated and helpless, and would have a more focused and empowered mind-set around eating and weight loss. However the feedback suggests that the programme has impacted in many additional areas of participants lives.

The typical motivation for people wanting to take part in the programme was supported by comments such as:

“I have a complete inability to control my weight, which leaves me feeling hugely frustrated, sad and out of control. I am unable to help myself. I've been trying to get back in control unsuccessfully for the last twenty years. My relationship with food is complicated so much so that I can't work it out for myself.

Below are the comments of some of our participants who completed the programme.

""It is a well thought out programme that can help in a gentle but straight talking way and is suitable for all ranges of people. It helped me get to grips with my problem and knowing someone there that understood and didn’t judge.""

“Since doing the programme, my life changed""

Our strategic vision has evolved since carrying out the feasibility study"

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Outcomes:

• KRTS is a commercially active business with solid foundations. We were recent finalists in the Merseyside Open Business Awards 2015, Small Business of the Year. We have formed strong business relationships with reputable organisations such as The British Bodyguard Association, The American Bodyguard Association, Health Assured and the University of Chester. The Art of Losing Weight programme is replicating the business model we used to develop an interactive on line trauma programme which is currently part of the portfolio provided by Health Assured (http://www.healthassured.co.uk/).

• We used the phase 1 funding to develop a prototype to accelerate the development of the programme. Once we have stabilised the digital platform, this will offer a new product range, expand our portfolio, provide a new income stream and give us the opportunity to create jobs, employ new staff, clinical coaches and consultants.

• We will build the E-Commerce side of the business including the development of Apps in the future.

• We aim to grow and expand into other geographical areas including tendering for public sector contracts across Europe. Initially, our obvious market will be English speaking countries, then we would move to countries such as France, Belgium and Germany, where English is a second language. Ultimately, we hope to have the programme translated into other languages, whilst addressing any cultural issues/barriers.

• We intend to produce research, publish the findings and disseminate the results through attending conferences and workshops. This fits into our commercialisation plan, by being innovative and disruptive with our unique approach. We can develop and provide a range of supportive products. There is also potential scope for the coaches to deliver training camps/residential programmes based on these advanced concepts. This in turn could put us in a position to franchise this project

A long term outcome of the programme will be to reduce the societal challenge of pressure on the NHS caused by obesity related problems. The problem to be solved is the rise in levels of obesity which has been seen in the UK and internationally.

Because preliminary findings indicate that there are many additional benefits to participants as well as dealing with their issues around food. There is a great deal of potential to develop and adapt this for other issues (such as addiction).

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