I wonder if this is owt to do with Billy Blunt going back?

Local authorities with the highest levels of obesity
Copeland 75.9%
Doncaster 74.4%
East Lindsey 73.8%
Ryedale 73.7%
Sedgemoor 73.4%
Gosport 72.9%
Castle Point 72.8%
Bolsover 72.5%
County Durham 72.5%
Milton Keynes 72.5%

 

That's the overweight and obese combined stats not the obese stats. Still quite damning though.

I live in donny. I've lost four stone in the last eight months but will still be part of that stat I would think.

It's interesting that depending which source you use, various newspapers and such, depends which are the worst areas. I've seen this one about donny, one about Bassetlaw (which is the same nhs trust as donny anyway), one that says the West Midlands and one that had Barnsley as second worst. All areas have at least 65% overweight or obese more or less. Not sure whether to buy into it or not. I certainly don't think we can conclude too much, especially that donny is 'fatter' than a lot of other places, for a start do they know what everybody weighs and their height? No. Even basic knowledge of statistical analysis will tell you that an estimate drawn from a small sample size will have a relatively wide ranging confidence interval. So the fact donny might look to have a few tenths of a percent more people overweight is completely insignificant when comparing to other areas as without sampling the whole population it isn't close to a true figure. So the stats are very flawed, but might still have some merit.

That said it shows either a) we're a country full of fat bar stewards; or b) the way they calculate whether somebody is overweight or obese through bmi is flawed. I reckon there are a lot of overweight folk for sure - but I think there's a lot of merit in argument b too.

Like I said I used to be a lot fatter than I am now. My bmi would still suggest I'm obese. I've still got a stone or so to go before I stop dieting and I'm comfortable so I accept that, but looking at the weight I'd need to be to be on the boundary of healthy and overweight, so the maximum 'healthy' weight, I know I look drawn and ill if I weigh that little, having lost a lot of weight years ago after a car accident. My GP, (and more importantly my Nanna!), told me to eat more and gain weight as I looked weak. I did have that grey drawn look to my face you associate with heroin addicts, yet I was barely as low as the healthy range, two pounds gained and I was 'overweight'.

I also know a bloke I work with, proper gym monkey with arms like tree trunks, is classed as morbidly obese. His stomach is like a washboard, there's more fat on Lester piggott's whip. But he has a lot of muscle tissue.

The system takes no account of bone or muscle mass, only height against weight. So it's a crock off s hit in some ways. Then there's also the fact they've published figures based on god knows what, but I reckon the percentage of population that they actually know the height and weight of will be a very small percentage.

But if it shocks the big folk, like I was, into doing something about it than even though it's perhaps a misleading stat it might do some good.

I certainly wouldn't be crowing that donny is fatter than Barnsley or vice versa.