About Us - The Lean Club

LEAN stands for Life-changing Education through Activity and Nutrition. With obesity becoming the world No. 1 public health issue, Sunway Medical Centre (SunMed), one of the leading private hospitals in Malaysia has embarked on an initiative to develop a community-based wellness programme in tackling obesity amongst children and adults.

We aim to:

Increase awareness about obesity and its health implications among Malaysian public.
Establish LEAN Club as a one-stop centre to help children and adults in preventing or managing obesity.
Engage government bodies to adopt LEAN club as a community weight programme.
Engage corporate bodies to adopt LEAN Club as a workplace weight management programme.
Strengthen LEAN Club as an effective obesity management programme through continuous evidence-based research.

Our Background

The National Health & Morbidity Survey in 2011 reported that 1/3 (33.3%) of Malaysian adults are overweight and ¼ (27%) of Malaysian adults are obese. In comparison with the same survey conducted in 2006 the obesity rate among Malaysian adults has increased 17.5%.

This significant increase has called for serious re-examination of public health programmes for more effective reduction of obesity among Malaysian adults. This should be of concern to everyone as obesity itself is a silent and steady killer.

Not only are obese adults predisposed to higher risk of chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes, hypertension and high cholesterol, oversized children have a head start in developing these adult-type medical problems. All these lead to cardiovascular disease and premature death.

Burden of obesity do not only affect the individual but the corporate as well. Studies have shown that obese people have high hospitalization compared with normal weight people and this often leads to increase in health care premium and medical claims. Productivity can be lowered due to absenteeism.

The outlook for a continued escalation of health care cost has forced employers to sharpen their focus on improving workforce health status through workplace wellness programmes and health promotion. Many have experienced improved health outcome and reduced cost both direct and indirectly.

Modification of lifestyle behavior change is the cornerstone of obesity treatment. Conducting obesity intervention in schools and workplace has shown many promising results.

As such, SunMed recognised the need in developing a programme to combat this issue to help build a healthy nation. March 2007 marked the birth of SunMed’s LEAN Club for Kids. Two years later, the LEAN Club for Adults was established.

LEAN Club is the first comprehensive and holistic healthy lifestyle interventional programme in Malaysia, for children and adults. Unlike the usual approach, LEAN Club places great importance in multi-disciplinary solutions, i.e. integrating clinical and psychology intervention, nutrition and exercise therapy to establish life-long healthy habits.

The uniqueness of LEAN Club is that we bring all crucial specialists under one roof i.e. physician, paediatrician, dietitians, clinical psychologist and sports therapist in a one-stop centre.

Who Is It For?

The LEAN Club programme approach remains the same across all age groups – utilizing nutrition and exercise therapy to educate LEAN participants on how to establish lifetime healthy habits that will help them to achieve and maintain a healthy weight.

What is LEAN Club for Adults

EAN Adults is a 4-month wellness and weight management programme. It aspires to achieve better health through sustainable healthy lifestyle. This programme empowers individuals to take charge of their health. Participants are coached by SunMed LEAN team, to adopt a healthy lifestyle tailored to their daily activity and life commitment. Behavior modification therapy will also help the participant to sustain the lifestyle changes they have made.

From year 2014 onwards, a series of interactive weight management workshops are being conducted throughout the year for the public. Interested individuals may come in a group or individually to join our activities. One-on-one counselling with the dietitian or a sport therapist guide participants towards a healthy lifestyle.

Who can join

- Body mass index (BMI) 27.5kg/m2 or above
- Age between 18-60 years old
- Able to converse and write in English or Malay
- Physically able and committed to join the programme
- Motivated to comply with advice and recommendation made by programme facilitators
- Must not be undergoing/using other commercial weight loss programme/medication
- Currently nor pregnant or breastfeeding
- People with any serious medical condition such as major surgery, heart disease, kidney, and liver disease should seek medical approval prior to joining this programme.

What is LEAN @ Work

LEAN @ Work is a subset component of LEAN Club which aims to bring the benefit of the LEAN Adult programme by adopting it as a workplace wellness programme. LEAN @ Work has a similar guiding principles and outline as LEAN Adults.

LEAN Club committee members work with individual institution to develop a tailored programme to suit the needs of its employees.

For the food and beverage industry, LEAN for Chef is a training for Chefs, Cooks and F&B servers to upgrade their service to provide healthy meals for internal and external customers.

The LEAN team brings to you a 2-day in-house training to cover the most updated diet craze and relevant medical diets to meet the requirement of their international and local clients. The training can be conducted at the convenience and comfort of your own premise.

What is LEAN Club for Kids

LEAN Club for Kids is designed as a family-based healthy living programme that is sustainable, practical and safe for children and teenagers. It is aimed at helping them to achieve a healthy weight, keep weight off in the long-term, and develop lifetime habits that would help keep the risk of obesity-related illnesses at bay.

With the LEAN programme, we hope to help these youngsters manage their diet better and inculcate positive habits in their daily lives in a fun and non-threatening environment.

From year 2014 onwards, a series of children healthy eating and schooling workshop/talks are conducted on demand in schools and child care institutions. One-on-one counselling sessions with the dietitian or a sport therapist will guide children and their care providers towards adopting healthy lifestyles.