States pushing online fitness programs

updated 3:21 p.m. ET March 18, 2007

INDIANAPOLIS - Arleen East started the year in a rut — overweight, sedentary and plagued by bouts of depression only deepened by her unflattering extra bulk.

Since those dark days of winter, the 47-year-old single mother has dropped 16 pounds from her 5-foot-7 frame. She’s down to 192 and is pressing ahead with her goal to slim down to 145.

East credits her turnaround not just to sheer will, but to help from Indiana’s “10 in 10 Challenge,” an online program that commits participants to lose 10 pounds in 10 weeks and prods them with weekly e-mails filled with exercise and diet tips.

With obesity worsening across the nation, a growing number of states like Indiana are launching online initiatives to combat residents’ expanding waistlines. Proponents say online programs reach a vast audience, are relatively cheap and a quick way to let people know about upcoming fitness events and local resources.

‘Fed up with all the gimmicks’
Before she signed up with “10 in 10,” East said she would come home from her job as an information technology specialist for the state and plunk down before the TV with her two dogs, eating junk food “out of boredom.”

Her 19-year-old daughter Alisha, a college student, wasn’t around much, and East had all but stopped going out with friends.

But these days, she sticks to healthy fare like grilled chicken and vegetables, takes walks around downtown Indianapolis on her lunch hour and sweats away the pounds after work in aerobics classes at the YMCA near her Martinsville, Ind., home.

“I’ve been on the yo-yo diet thing for a few years and I really just got fed up with all the gimmicks. So I’m just trying to do it on my own now,” said East, who heard about the “10 in 10” program about the time she decided to make a change.

She said it’s helped her stay motivated with its tips, including the idea to schedule her aerobics class right after she gets home from work so she has no time to hit the couch.

The “10 in 10” program debuted in January with TV commercials showing Gov. Mitch Daniels jogging, pumping iron and bounding up stairs at the Indiana Statehouse as he exhorted Hoosiers to “log on and lighten up.” Since then, nearly 37,000 Indiana residents have signed up.

That’s the best response yet to “INShape Indiana,” the state’s multipronged effort to get people to eat healthy, get active and avoid tobacco, said Eric Neuburger, executive director of the Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports.

Halfway through the 10-week program, 3,211 participants reported in an online survey a combined weight loss of 12,251 pounds — or an average of 3.8 pounds each.

Some version of “10 in 10” will likely return this summer, depending on funding and other fitness ideas under consideration.

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