England’s growing obesity crisis is laid bare today in a sobering interactive map that reveals the areas where most people face health risks from excess fat.
Raw figures show four in ten residents of Wigan, Great Yarmouth and Swale are now obese.
For comparison, only a tenth of people in Kensington and Chelsea fall into the same category, according to the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities.
Waistlines also increased across the country, with the average rate of overweight and obesity being the highest recorded since records began.
Almost eight in ten adults are now classed as overweight in County Durham and Wirral.
He The data also covers the period when Britain was plunged into a cost of living crisis, which experts have long warned increases the risk of malnutrition due to high food and energy prices.
On average, more than a quarter (26.2 percent) of adults nationwide are obese. This is classified as having a BMI greater than 30.
Just under two-thirds (64 percent) are overweight or obese (a BMI greater than 25).
According to analysts, South Tyneside (38.8 per cent) had the highest obesity rate, after Wigan, Grear Yarmouth and Swale (39.1 per cent).
Stoke-on-Trent (38.7 per cent) and Cannock Chase (38.4 per cent) followed.
Meanwhile, just 13.2 per cent of adults in Kensington and Chelsea and 13.9 per cent in Haringey were classed as obese.
Outside London, rates stood at just 14 per cent in the Isles of Scilly.
But in the north of England, similar figures were again observed when taking into account the combined rate of overweight and obesity.
The data, based on Sport England’s ‘Active Lives Adult Survey’, found that more than three-quarters of adults in County Durham (77.7 per cent) met the threshold.
Wirral (76.3 per cent), Cannock Chase (76 per cent) and Gosport (74.6 per cent) complete the authorities where the population is largest.
In comparison, Kensington and Chelsea (45.8 per cent), Tower Hamlets (45.9 per cent) and Westminster (47.9 per cent) recorded the lowest rates.
Eight of the 10 smallest authorities were in London.
These also include Haringey (48.5 per cent), Wandsworth (49.5 per cent), Islington (50.1 per cent), Kingston upon Thames (52.7 per cent) and Harrow (52.8 per cent).
The OHID noted that obesity rates were highest among the most disadvantaged groups in society.
The average woman needs to eat around 2,000 calories a day to maintain a healthy weight, while the figure is 2,500 for men.
Weight gain occurs when a person, over time, consumes more calories than they burn.
Obesity has been shown to increase the risk of serious health conditions that can damage the heart, such as high blood pressure, as well as cancer.
Being too fat is estimated to cause one in 20 cases of cancer in Britain, according to Cancer Research UK.
Britain’s obesity crisis is also estimated to cost the nation almost £100 billion a year.
More than 42 million adults in the UK will be overweight or obese by 2040, according to Cancer Research UK projections
This colossal figure includes health damage to the NHS, as well as secondary economic effects such as loss of income from people taking time off work due to illness and premature death.
Experts have blamed the country’s growing waistline on the simultaneous rise of processed, calorie-laden foods and sedentary, desk-bound lifestyles.
No 10 previously pledged to help Brits lose weight but has since stepped back from what they have seen as “nanny state” style initiatives.
In 2020, former Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a “world-leading” obesity action plan, inspired in part by how his own weight put him at higher risk of serious illness when he contracted Covid.
However, he later avoided radical proposals put forward by Dimbleby, who was asked by the Conservatives to draw up recommendations to improve the country’s diet and combat the promotion of foods high in fat, sugar and salt.
The co-founder of restaurant chain Leon called for taxes on salt and sugar, but his pleas sparked outrage after it was estimated they could add £60 to each person’s annual food bill.
Surviving proposals Ban on buy one get one free on unhealthy snacks. and Junk food adverts before 9pm were subsequently delayed by Mr Sunak.
Both policies, originally scheduled to be implemented this year, have been delayed until 2025, with the prime minister citing an unwillingness to put pressure on household bills and wanting to give the industry more time to prepare for the change respectively.
Eton-educated Dimbleby resigned from his role last year, citing a lack of appetite within the government for the changes needed to tackle obesity.