Nearly seven in ten men are overweight or obese — up from 58 percent in 1993, a survey shows

More than two-thirds of men today are overweight or obese, with middle-aged men particularly vulnerable to spread.

A new public health survey for 2021, released yesterday, graphically illustrates England’s obesity epidemic.

While in 1993, when records began, only 13 percent of men were obese, today it is 25 percent.

The percentage of men who are either overweight or obese has increased from 58 percent in 1993 to 69 percent today, according to survey results.

There was a sharp increase in obesity between 1993 and 2001, but rates have generally been increasing since then (file picture).

The comparisons need to be treated with caution as this is the first year, due to Covid, that people’s weight and height have been reported over the phone, rather than being measured by an interviewer at their home.

However, the numbers are similar to the results of recent years.

They show that both retirees aged 65-74 and middle-aged people aged 45-54 are the most likely to have a weight problem, with 73 percent of each group being overweight or obese.

Men still have a higher BMI than women on average, but people generally pack on the pounds.

The average male weight appears to have gone up about a stone in one generation, from 78.9 kg (12.6 lbs) in 1993 to 85.1 kg (13.6 lbs) last year.

Women have experienced an 11 pound gain, from an average of 66.6 kg (10.7 lbs) in 1993 to 71.8 kg (11.4 lbs) last year.

The largest increase in obesity occurred between 1993 and 2001, but the rate has generally increased gradually since then.

The survey results, commissioned by NHS Digital and based on interviews with 5,880 adults, show that just over a quarter of adults in England as a whole – 26 per cent – were obese, with obesity falling with age by eight per cent of adults in the UK Age increased from 16 to 24 to almost a third of 65 to 74 year olds.

The 69 per cent of men classified as overweight or obese in the Health Survey for England, 2021 is higher than the 59 per cent of women who fall into this group based on their BMI.

And middle-age spread can be particularly common in men, according to the numbers.

Among those aged 45 to 54, 82 percent of men were classified as obese, compared to just 65 percent of women.

Obesity and related diseases cost the NHS an estimated £6.1 billion a year and the survey found that 11 per cent of people who reported a BMI that made them obese had diabetes, compared with just three per cent of those who did were not overweight or overweight.

Type 2 diabetes, which is linked to obesity, can lead to complications like heart disease, vision loss, and kidney problems.

More than half of obese people — 51 percent — had at least one long-standing medical condition, compared to just 36 percent of people who were not overweight or obese even after accounting for age.

In general, the survey shows that people’s BMI increases with age and is highest between the ages of 47 and 74.

The numbers have been adjusted to take into account that people tend to overestimate their height and underestimate their weight.

After that, it appears that a quarter of men and 26 percent of women are obese.

About a fifth of people in the most affluent areas of England were obese, compared with more than a third in the most deprived areas.

The poll also provides more evidence of the geographic divide, with 72 per cent of people in the north east of England being overweight or obese, compared to just 61 per cent in London and 60 per cent in the south west.

The report also found that nearly half of adults drank alcohol at least once a week, while 12 percent were current cigarette smokers.

Not only were men more likely to be overweight than women, but they also drank alcohol more often than the recommended weekly amount.

About 28 percent of men said they typically consumed more than 14 units of alcohol per week, compared to just 15 percent of women.

Naveed Sattar, Professor of Metabolic Medicine at the University of Glasgow, responded to the statistics: “These figures underscore once again the urgent need to address the nation’s increasing waistlines, as the risk of not doing so is that more people with multiple live with conditions linked to being overweight, leading to more suffering and even greater costs to the NHS.

“However, to really understand and address the changing obesity rate in England, we need to get back to measuring people’s BMI directly, rather than examining it over the phone.”