The obesity epidemic is spreading more rapidly than expected, but many people don’t even recognise that they are too heavy

Recently, it has been shown that the average Briton exercises far less than is recommended and that obesity is on the rise. Grace Lordan quantifies some of the costs of obesity and some of the obstacles that stand in the way of exercise. Importantly, many overweight individuals do not even recognise that they are overweight, and so perhaps a first step is to begin telling people that they need to lose weight, either through their GP, a national campaign of information or by providing the right kind of incentives to individuals.