Health data suggests one in two people in Lincoln are overweight or obese

Local Public Health England obesity data is available for the first time, and results indicate almost 60% of people in Lincoln are overweight or obese.

Nationally, over 64% of adults are classed as carrying ‘excess weight’, with the ‘fattest’ area named as Copeland in West Cumbria at a 75.9% overweight rating.

PHE defines ‘excess weight’ in adults (over 16) as a body mass index (BMI) greater than 25kg.

The three-year rolling data is based on self-reported height and weight measurements collected via the Active People Survey by Sport England since January 2012. The weighted sample for Lincoln was 247 people.

Of the Lincoln people included in the data, 57.6% of people carried excess weight and 24.3% of these were recorded as obese.

Some 40.7% were marked as having a healthy weight and 1.7% of people were classed as underweight.

Lincoln sits in the lower half of the list of all local areas for overweight percentages and the majority of the areas with the healthiest weight percentages were in the London area.

The area with the smallest percentage of overweight people was Kensington and Chelsea at 45.9%

Professor Kevin Fenton, Director of Health and Wellbeing at PHE said: “Local authorities are ideally placed to develop co-ordinated action across their departments, services and partner organisations to tackle overweight and obesity in the local population.

“Many local authorities are already working hard to reduce obesity levels and these new data will help all local areas monitor their progress in tackling these longstanding problems. Public Health England is committed to supporting local government and the local NHS.

“People who are overweight or obese have an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes, heart disease and certain cancers. Excess weight can also affect self-esteem and mental health. Overall health problems associated with being overweight or obese cost the NHS over £5 billion each year.”