RI Fitness Program Founder Plans To Expand Program

ERIC TUCKER

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — There's no muscle-bound instructor snarling for another pull-up or large cash prize offered to the person who sheds the most pounds.

Even so, about 35,000 Rhode Islanders have competed over the last four years in their own, quieter variation of "The Biggest Loser," joining a statewide weight loss and fitness challenge founded by a Brown University medical student.

Now Shape Up Rhode Island has received a $105,000 national health care prize that program creator Rajiv Kumar says will help make it more accessible to low-income residents who may be turned off by the $20-per-person entrance fee.

Kumar, 26, founded the program in 2005 when he was a medical student, struck by how many ailments — like high blood pressure and certain types of diabetes — could often be controlled or even prevented by patients. Even though doctors give sound advice on how to get healthy, Kumar said, patients often lack the support or routine to change their behavior.

"It was interesting and exciting to me as a medical student to think that we could actually prevent these diseases before they happen and reduce the human and economic toll that we bear along with them," said Kumar, a third-year student who plans to focus on preventive medicine.