Average UK male weight up 16lb in 15 years, study finds

The average British man was more than a stone heavier in 2000 than he was in 1986, an Oxford University study found.

Scientists put the average weight rise of 7.7kg (16.9lb) down to men eating more calories and taking less physical exercise than 15 years earlier. The British Heart Foundation research in the British Journal of Nutrition analysed changes in food consumption and body weight between 1986 and 2000.

Women's average weight gain over the period was 5.4kg (11.9lb). By studying official figures on body weight from 1986 and 2000 and calculating the food energy available during that time, researchers were able to work out the expected extra food eaten by men and women during that period.

They predicted that the average man in 2000 ate more food than the average man in 1986 - enough to make him 4.7kg (10.3lb) heavier in weight. But the actual observed increase in average male weight turned out to be higher.

This was much more than expected, so the study concluded that a reduction in physical activity was behind the increased weight as well as the extra food. The extra food available in 2000 was enough to explain the increased weight in women compared to 1986 as well.

Now at the end of 2010 and looking towards 2011 what does the future hold for obesity in England?