Three quarters of British men to be overweight or obese by 2030: study

Three quarters of British men will be overweight or obese by 2030 because of current levels of inactivity and poor diets, according to a study conducted by the UK Health Forum with the World Health Organisation's Regional Office for Europe.

The results show that three out of four men will be at risk of heart disease or a stroke in the next 16 years, with the UK’s obesity problem potentially costing the NHS an extra £19.2bn a year by 2030.

As it stands, in the UK, around 66 per cent of men are classed as being overweight or obese, while 57 per cent of women also face the same classification.

According to the findings of the investigation, 74 per cent of men will be overweight or obese by 2030 and 64 per cent of women.

The predictions were made using a statistical modelling study, which took all available data on body mass index (BMI) and obesity/overweight trends in 53 of WHO’s European countries.

Britain’s statistics are some of the most worrying in Europe, with more than one-third of men and women being predicted to be clinically obese by 2030, whereas this figure is just 10 per cent in Romania and 15 per cent in Belgium and the Netherlands by the same year.

The study’s authors believe the results show that stricter measures are required to promote more activity, while also addressing the problem of nutritional deficient junk foods.

“We need comprehensive package of approaches to support healthy eating and more physical activity in daily life,” said Dr Laura Webber of the UK Health Forum and author of the report.

"Our study presents a worrying picture of rising obesity across Europe. Policies to reverse this trend are urgently needed. There is no silver bullet for tackling this. We need a comprehensive package of approaches to support healthy eating and more physical activity in daily life.

"We need to protect children from this environment – important to restrict unhealthy food marketing to children on all media and in settings where children gather such as schools.”

Inactivity issues in the UK have recently been targeted by the NHS, which is now pushing an activity agenda through its weight loss guidelines.

Other worrying trends were revealed by Public Health England in February, following the publication of statistics that showed two-thirds of adults in the UK are now overweight or obese.