It’s a figure as uncompromising as the average Briton’s: obesity is now costing the UK almost £100billion a year. Analysis from the Tony Blair Institute published last week described the “sick and impoverished nation” our excess weight is creating, amounting to four per cent of the GDP – that has seen an additional 6kg added to men’s waistlines over the past decade, and 5kg to women’s.
The report is “absolutely shocking”, Roy Taylor, professor of medicine and metabolism at the University of Newcastle, says of the “desperate situation” the UK is now in. When he qualified as a doctor in the mid-’70s, seven per cent of adults had a body mass index over 30 (deemed obese); now, that figure has near-quadrupled to more than 25 per cent, with a further 37.9 per cent considered overweight. “We’re just far too heavy, just now, as a population.”
This is not so much a matter of individual choices, Taylor adds, but our “obesogenic environment” – in which sedentary lifestyles and abundant high-calorie foods have become the norm.
There are a million one diets and twice as many gurus on Youtube, many of whom will tell you that calories don’t count; sorry, that is garbage. I did a number of things to address my problem which was slightly more than the 6kg average the research highlights.
Among the efforts I made to lose weight, there were a couple of key things. Virtually every meals includes a heavy dollop of carbs in the form of rice, pasta or potatoes. I junked the carb heavy foods that raise blood sugar and opted for Konjac rice and noodles – no carbs and very few calories. OK, not quite the same hit as the real deal but you get used to them and now part of my everyday diet. In fact I’m of to replenish the larder with a trip to Home Bargains where they can be picked up at £1 a packet. The other thing I did was to reduce bread intake and now I only eat low carb high protein bread, my choice in Hi-Lo from Sainsbury’s at £2.20. Both of these measures are a great start.
HarryT 