KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 22 — A total of five personnel or 15 per cent of the 35 police officers who participated in last month’s “Trim N Fit” programme have successfully burned some excess fat, with some even losing up to 8kg.

The Star reported today that these officers were happy after their body mass index (BMI) dropped from the "obese" category to "overweight".

“So far, we are satisfied with the performance of our participants. I myself lost 5kg," Bukit Aman Director of Management Commissioner Datuk Zulkifli Abdullah was quoted as saying.

“The biggest weight loss by participants of this project is 8kg,” he added.

The pilot project, which was launched to develop a fit police force, placed the officers under vigorous training and a diet programme for six months to increase the effectiveness of the force.

The participants comprise 15 senior officers from various departments and 20 officers from the Logistics Department, and include 12 women.

Comm Zulkifli said the Health Ministry will be preparing a template to be used by the entire force after this period.

“We need to find out what is suitable for the police force as a whole. We don’t want to make mistakes as this involves health. We aim to finalise this template and enforce it by January 1, 2017,” he was quoted as saying in The Star.

Zulkifli had previously said that about 11,000 of the total 122,403 officers in the force were overweight.

He also noted that an average of 560 police officers took medical leave every day over the last four years, including high-ranking officers. This translated to about RM38 million in losses to the force.