There is very little positive to say about the trend in population weight gain, other than the rate of increase has slowed.1 People have been getting heavier, so that by 2015, 58 per cent of women and 68 per cent of men were overweight or obese.2 Obesity prevalence increased from 6 per cent of men and 8 per cent of women being obese in 1980 to an average of 15 per cent in 1993 and 27 per cent in 2015.2,3 That is people considered obese, not just overweight.
Among children, National Child Measurement Programme data for 2016-17 indicates that the prevalence of obesity in Reception year increased from 9.3 per cent in 2015-16 to 9.6 per cent a year later. For Year 6 children (10 year olds) it has remained fairly stable at 20 per cent. “These figures mean that, as in previous years, the prevalence of obesity more than doubles from Reception to Year 6,” the government said in January 2018.4
Unfortunately, obesity data for children illustrates the link with deprivation. Obesity prevalence among Reception children living in the most deprived areas was 12.7% compared with 5.8% among those living in the least deprived areas. In Year 6 these figures were 26.3% and 11.4% respectively.4
Cancer Research UK (CRUK) also had headlines at the end of February 2018 saying millennials (people born between the early 1980s and mid 1990s) will be the fattest generation of Britons on record, topping the obesity chart before reaching middle age.5
The charity has calculated that more than seven in 10 millennials are set to be overweight or obese between the ages of 35-44. This compares to around five in 10 baby boomers (those born between 1945-55) who were overweight or obese at the same age.