NHS ‘healthy weight’ calculator wrongly told fat people to eat up to 2,000 ‘excess’ calories a week

The NHS’s ‘healthy weight’ calculator has wrongly advised overweight people to eat hundreds of excess calories a day, a scientist claims.

The mistake meant that people who exercised lightly once a week had to eat as much as people who exercised almost every day.

If the typical dietician had followed the instructions of the health department, he could have gained almost two and a half stone in a year.

Obesity expert Dr Stuart Flint first warned health officials about the ‘nonsensical’ calculations more than two years ago, in May 2021, but nothing was done about it.

Not until his concerns were published The Lancet magazine in March this year that the NHS has pulled the calculator from its website.

The mistake meant that Britons who exercised lightly once a week were told to eat as much as people who exercised almost every day. It meant that a 5′ 9′ man, weighing 14st 6lbs – about a stone above average – was told to eat a minimum of 1,817 calories a day when not exercising (left image). But he was advised to eat an extra 819 calories per week (117 extra calories per day) for at least 30 minutes of exercise per week, and 2,086 extra calories per week (298 per day) for 60 minutes or more of exercise. exercise per week (image right)

It was put back online earlier this month, with the calorie advice removed.

The mistakes meant that an overweight man trying to lose weight could be advised to eat nearly 300 excess calories per day, while women in the same category were advised to eat up to 240 extra calories each day.

Those who followed the advice are said to have consumed up to 2,086 extra calories per week — equivalent to more than four Big Mac burgers.

It is clear that the online calculator, which is consulted 22 million times a year, has been giving the misleading advice since 2018.

Dr. Flint, associate professor of the psychology of obesity at the University of Leeds, said: ‘People were told to consume different amounts of calories based on information that was factually incorrect… They could be consuming hundreds of calories more per day.’

The NHS BMI [Body Mass Index] ‘healthy weight calculator’ was created as part of efforts to tackle the obesity epidemic in Britain.

Two out of three adults in the country are overweight or obese.

BMI is an indicator of whether someone has a healthy weight for their height. A healthy BMI is between 18.5 and 24.9, while anything above 25 is considered overweight and above 30 obese.

The NHS calculator told anyone with a BMI of 25 or above how many calories they should eat in a day if they wanted to lose weight gradually, based on how active they were.

It asked people to enter basic information including their weight, height, gender, ethnicity and activity level.

People who were considered overweight or obese were then told how many calories they should consume daily if they wanted to lose weight.

Those who were more physically active were advised to eat more than those who led a sedentary lifestyle.

But the calculator overestimated the impact of very small increases in exercise, potentially encouraging millions of dieters to consume more calories than they need.

The calculator asked people to choose between three levels of activity: inactive, moderately active, and active.

‘Inactive’ was defined as 0 to 30 minutes of physical activity per week, but ‘moderately active’ was incorrectly classified as between 30 and 60 minutes of physical activity per week and ‘active’ as between 60 and 150 minutes per week.

According to the NHS’s own guidelines, only people who exercise at least 150 minutes a week should be considered ‘active’.

People who ticked the misdefined boxes of “moderately active” or “active” were allocated hundreds of extra calories per day, despite only exercising slightly more per week.

It meant that a 5′ 9′ man, weighing 14st 6lbs – about a stone above average – was told to eat a minimum of 1,817 calories a day when not exercising.

But he was advised to eat an extra 819 calories per week (117 extra calories per day) for at least 30 minutes of exercise per week, and 2,086 extra calories per week (298 per day) for 60 minutes or more of exercise. sports per week.

In fact, 30 minutes of brisk walking would burn only 174 calories for a man of this weight, while 60 minutes would burn a total of only 348 calories.

Following the advice could lead to an average weight gain of 2nd 5 pounds per year.

Tam Fry, chair of the National Obesity Forum, said he was ‘baffled’ that the NHS had been giving the tool inaccurate information for years.

“Unfortunately it will no doubt mean that countless people are heavier than necessary if they follow the calculator’s advice – and it is appalling that the NHS ignored the need to correct the advice for so long,” he said.

Dr. Flint said the imprecise descriptions of what counted as “active” had misled millions of people.

“The fact that you’re told, if you’re in the ‘moderate’ group to consume more than the ‘inactive group’ – that’s a problem,” he added. “You’re told, ‘You can still consume 100 to 200 calories a day,’ which you’re not allowed to do because you’re still inactive.”

A person who contacted Dr. Flint on social media after reading his letter in the Lancet, said: ‘I followed the guidelines of the NHS BMI calculator for calorie intake but kept gaining weight.’

After performing their own calorie calculations, the dieter was able to lower their BMI from 37.0 to 27.4.

Professor Barbara McGowan, co-chair of the European Association for the Study of Obesity (EASO) Obesity Management Task Force, said consuming 200 excess calories a day could lead a person to gain up to 1 kg (about 2 lbs) a month – or 1st 12 pounds per year.

‘If there’s a problem [with the advice] has been identified, it seems prudent to correct it as soon as possible,” she added.

The calculator, which was removed in March, was brought back online early this month, with the controversial sections on exercise and daily calorie recommendations removed.

An NHS source said the calorie ranges were assigned to an activity spectrum, meaning the same numbers were given to those who got between 60 and 150 minutes of exercise per week.

A spokesperson said all recommendations were “evidence-based.”

They added: ‘In line with NICE guidelines, the BMI calculator no longer gives advice on calories, so other factors, such as lifestyle, are taken into consideration when giving weight management advice.’