Edinburgh Leisure highlighted the fight against obesity last month, literally tackling the fat by organising a tug of war between a group of Edinburgh Rugby players – and 60kg of fat.

The sports trust, which manages the city’s leisure portfolio of 34 sports and leisure facilities, says that on average, people in Scotland carry approximately 4kg of extra weight – so the 60kg pile of fat tackled by Ben Gissing, Ben Meyer and Matt Mustchin represented the extra weight just 15 adult Scots are carrying about with them.

Keith Jackson, CEO of Edinburgh Leisure, said: “The City of Edinburgh Council has a vision to make Edinburgh the most active city in Europe by 2020. As the largest leisure provider in the city, we, Edinburgh Leisure, are very much part of that initiative and so we wanted to show Edinburgh why they can help Scotland’s desire to lose the title of one of the fattest nations.

“The sight of 60kg of fat is a shocking image but we hope to send out a strong message to people in Edinburgh and to the rest of Scotland that we’re leading the way when it comes to physical activity and leading healthy, happy and fulfilling lives.

“We want more and more people to participate in physical activity and prove that it is possible to shift the excess fat of the nation if we all get behind it.”