Around two-thirds (63%) of adults are above a healthy weight, and of these, half are living with obesity. Obesity puts us at risk of a range of chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, at least 12 kinds of cancer, liver and respiratory disease, COVID-19 and can impact mental health.
Obesity is a complex issue with many causes. Obesity and being overweight is caused when extra calories, particularly those from foods high in fat and sugar, are stored in the body as fat. This can be caused by genetics or underlying health conditions. Although these types of conditions do not usually cause weight problems if they're effectively controlled with medicines. More Often than not obesity is caused by lack of proper exercise and excess consumption of calories.
Obesity is an increasingly common problem because the environment we live in makes it difficult for many people to eat healthily and do enough physical activity.
Over 1 in 4 of us has put on weight since the first lockdown in March 2020, according to recent research. We’ve been doing more comfort eating and snacking, alongside staying at home more. Now it’s time to get our health back on track.
The best way to treat obesity is to eat a healthy reduced-calorie diet and exercise regularly.You can also benefit from receiving support and counselling from a trained healthcare professional to help you better understand your relationship with food and develop different eating habits.
For those wishing to improve their health and embark on a weight-loss journey you may find some of the services offered by our PCN projects to be of great help to you.
Checking your BMI can be a great way to find out if you are overweight or obese. BMI is a measure of whether you're a healthy weight for your height. You can use the NHS BMI healthy weight calculator to find out your BMI HERE.
Non-urgent advice:ForFor For most adults, if your BMI is:
- below 18.5 – you're in the underweight range
- 18.5 to 24.9 – you're in the healthy weight range
- 25 to 29.9 – you're in the overweight range
- 30 to 39.9 – you're in the obese range
- 40 or above – you're in the severely obese range
- 23 to 27.4 – you're in the overweight range
- 27.5 or above – you're in the obese range
The Body Mass Index (BMI) has certain limitations since it assesses weight instead of fat. For example, highly muscular individuals, like professional athletes, may display a high BMI despite having low body fat. Nevertheless, for the majority of individuals, BMI acts as a helpful measure to determine if they maintain a healthy weight.
To find out more about what services are available to you please contact your GP. Or alternatively through our PCN you have access to a Health and Wellbeing coach and a Social Prescribing Link Worker who are also able to guide and refer you to the services you require.
To read more information about what our Health and Wellbeing coach and a Social Prescribing Link Workers do please Follow the links below.
Please follow the links below to find out more about how to lose weight via healthy eating and exercise.