Wes Streeting warns weight loss jabs ‘are not an alternative to exercise’ – as damning figures reveal Britons are getting fatter

Wes Streeting has warned that weight loss jabs should not be used as an excuse to give up healthy living as figures show the country is getting fatter.

The Health Secretary said diet and exercise must continue to play an important role and that obese people should not expect the NHS to ‘pick up the tab’.

Two in three Britons are overweight or obese, and NHS figures show that people weighed around a stone more than 30 years ago.

The average middle-aged man weighs 14 stone and has a 40-inch waist, while women aged 45 to 64 now weigh an average of 12 stone, with a 36-inch waist.

Streeting’s intervention comes as the NHS prepares to roll out weight loss jabs to 1.6 million patients.

Wes Streeting (pictured at Labor conference) warned that diet and exercise must continue to play an important role in people’s lives

The average middle-aged man weighs 14 stone and has a 40 inch waist, while women aged 45 to 64 now weigh an average of 12 stone, with a 36 inch waist (file image)

Mounjaro could help users lose more than a quarter of their body weight in 18 months

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They will be available first to the heaviest and sickest, the government said last week.

HOW TO CALCULATE YOUR BODY MASS INDEX – AND WHAT IT MEANS

Body mass index (BMI) is a measure of body fat based on your weight in relation to your height.

For children and young people aged 2 to 18 years, the BMI calculation takes into account age and gender, as well as height and weight.

Ethnicity can also influence the risk of certain health problems. For example, adults of Asian descent may have a higher risk of health problems with a BMI lower than 25.

Standard formula:

BMI = (weight in pounds / (height in inches x height in inches)) x 703

Metric formula:

BMI = (weight in kilograms / (height in meters x height in meters))

Dimensions:

Under 18.5: underweight

18.5 – 24.9: Healthy

25 – 29.9: Overweight

30 or higher: obese

Studies have shown that Mounjaro, described as the ‘King Kong’ of fat-burning jabs, can help people lose up to 26 percent of their body weight in 18 months.

Experts say the shots are a crucial weapon in tackling the obesity epidemic, which costs the economy an estimated £27 billion a year in health care and benefits for people out of work.

Mr Streeting told The Sunday Telegraph: ‘Obesity is a huge drag on the NHS, the economy and people’s quality of life, so obesity jabs are an exciting innovation.

‘But we don’t want to encourage a culture of dependency where people think it’s OK not to make the effort to eat healthy or exercise because the NHS will foot the bill and pay for their weight loss.’

He added: ‘People have the right to expect top quality healthcare, but also the responsibility to look after their own health, so we need to get the balance right.’

Obesity is the second most common cause of preventable death after smoking and costs the health service £11.4 billion a year, putting ‘huge pressure on NHS staff and resources’, the Health Secretary has said.

Both Wegovy and Mounjaro injections are approved for obese adults and for people with a body mass index of at least 27 and weight-related health problems.

Dr. Clare Hambling, NHS national clinical director for diabetes and obesity, described the latter as ‘one of the biggest public health issues we face in this country’.

She said action is “urgently needed across society to stem the tide of the rising (obesity) rates of recent decades and prevent so many lives from being shortened.”

Baby boomers are living longer, but have poorer health than previous generations

Baby boomers live longer than previous generations, but have poorer health.

Research has shown that people over the age of 50 and 60 are more likely to have serious health problems than those born during or just before the Second World War.

Research carried out at University College London and the University of Oxford, published in The Journals of Gerontology, found that the younger group were more likely to develop cancer, lung disease, heart problems, diabetes and high cholesterol.

The findings are likely to add to growing questions about whether drugs including liraglutide, currently prescribed by the NHS for adults with a BMI over 30, will also be extended to obese children.

However, side effects such as nausea, vomiting and diarrhea were common and occurred in eight out of 10 children given liraglutide, half in the placebo group.

More severe reactions occurred in 12.5 percent of those taking the drug, compared to 7.7 percent in the control group, causing one in 10 to give up the jab before the end of the trial.

Commenting on the findings, Dr Nerys Astbury, Associate Professor of Diet and Obesity at the University of Oxford, said: ‘These promising findings open up the possibility that safe and effective drugs may soon be available for the treatment of obesity in children and adolescents. .

‘Because treating children and adolescents with obesity has the potential to have longer-lasting health benefits, although these medications are currently expensive, their value in reducing the risk of obesity-related conditions and improving longer-term health term are considered.

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