We’ve all heard the term ‘obesity crisis’ being thrown around on the news and in the papers – but what exactly does this mean? Why is the UK in an obesity crisis? And why is it so important to tackle obesity?
There’s a lot of questions, so since it’s National Obesity Awareness Week this week, we thought we’d demystify some of the confusion around the topic.
Why is the UK in an ‘obesity crisis’?
In the last 20 years, the number of clinically obese Brits has doubled. The latest figures show that, 29% of adults are obese, and a further 36% are overweight – meaning that 65% of the population are above an ideal healthy weight. In children, 9.5% of Year 1 children (aged 4-5) are obese, and this figure doubles by the time they reach Year 6 with 20% of 10-11 year olds classed as obese.
And obesity rate continues to rise faster than in any other developed country, making us the most overweight country in Western Europe.
Obesity is the second biggest cause of early deaths in the UK (after smoking), and costs the NHS £5.1 billion every year.
And, if we carry on like this, by 2030 up to half of British adults could be obese.
What exactly does it mean to be ‘obese’?
The NHS define ‘obesity’ as being ‘very overweight with a lot of body fat’.
BMI (Body Mass Index) is the most common way of diagnosing somebody as obese. BMI is a score worked out from your height and weight. Anybody with a BMI score of 30 or more is classified as being obese (a score of 25+ suggests you are overweight. To be a healthy weight you want your BMI to be somewhere in between 18.5 and 24.9)
Diagnosing obesity in children is slightly different, because the BMI score also takes into account their age and gender. An obese child would be in or above the 95th BMI centile, suggesting they are heavier than 95% of other children their age.
Why is being obese bad for your health?
- Obesity can reduce your life expectancy by 3 – 10 years.
- Obesity can lead to serious health conditions like type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and asthma.
- Being obese puts you at greater risk of stroke, some types of cancer, and heart, liver and kidney disease.
- Obesity can negatively affect your mental health, leading to depression and low self-esteem.
- Day-to-day problems caused by obesity include: difficulty doing physical activity, breathlessness, feeling tired and sluggish, aches and pains in your back and joints.
…But it’s not all doom and gloom
In our culture of junk food advertising, cheap and convenient fast food, and spending too much time in front of a screen – letting your weight creep up is easily done!
But the government are running lots of schemes to try and tackle the obesity crisis, with a target to halve child obesity by 2030. Campaigns like Change4Life educates families on how to make healthier choices, and the sugar tax aims to discourage consumption of fizzy drinks.
Plus there are plenty of ways you can start creating healthy habits right now, to pass on to your children, grandchildren, friends and family.
Just a few small changes are all it takes to make a big difference to maintaining a healthy weight.
