Glasgow is the city with the highest rates of overweight population, with body mass index(BMI) over 30. Over one-third of Glaswegians carry excessive weight and more than 5% are classed as morbidly obese, with a BMI of 40 and over. The Scottish city also scores the highest percentage in smoking rates (29%) and ranks fifth among those getting the least sleep.

Nuffield Health Carried Out the New Research

At the other end of the spectrum, London proves to be the fittest location, with Bloomsbury and Wimbledon having the highest rates of healthy-weight population – 65% and 63% respectively. Bristol follows closely, with over 62% of residents with a BMI between 18 and 25. Covent Garden (62.1%) and the City of London (61%) also perform well on this metric.

Leicester and Letchworth are the places with the fewest smokers, standing at 8% and 8.2% respectively. Oxford appears to be another “unhealthy” destination, as it is included in the top five for both obesity (26%) and smoking rates (23%).

The charity based its findings on data gathered from over 40,000 people from across the country, who wished to change their lifestyle and start leading a healthier life.

Bariatric surgery is considered the most effective weight loss method, as it allows even morbidly obese people to shed a large part of their excessive pounds and enables them to return to a healthier life.

However, many insurance companies refuse to fund weight loss procedures and people either have to pay USD20,000 (almost GBP12,500) or lose wight in more traditional ways, through diet and exercise. However, a number of people have decided to try another option – gaining more pounds, so that they can qualify for a free procedure.

In the US, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is the regulatory body that determines if a procedure is appropriate for a patient. Generally speaking, patients with a BMI of 35 and over were approved for the procedures but i n response to the weight gain trend, the FDA has lowered the requirements to BMI of 30, accompanied by an obesity-related condition, like diabetes, for example.

Dr Robert Michaelson, of the Northwest Weight Loss Surgery in Washington warns that gaining even a few pounds when people are already overweight can have a devastating effect on their health and may trigger heart disease, sleep apnea, osteoarthritis and depression.

The high-tech “flab lab”, as it is unofficially referred to, will enable scientists and health experts to gain insight on how food, sleep, medicines and exercise influence one’s weight. The first experiment focuses on the effect of eating at varying speeds. It is generally believed that eating slowly may help prevent obesity, as the brain receives information that the stomach is full after consuming smaller quantities of food.

The experiment involves several patients, who will spend three days in an air-locked “flab-lab”, which will carefully measure the ways they burn calories. On the first day, the participants in the experiment will gobble their lunch in 10 minutes, on the second day they will have 20 minutes to eat and on the last day the time frame will be extended to 40 minutes. The time is carefully controlled by dividing the food into small portions, which are handed over to the participants every 5 minutes. At the end of each day, they are offered an all-you-can-eat meal to measure their appetite.

The researchers hope that the experiment will help them prove that slow eating can suppress appetite and may lead to weight loss, thus giving obese people another option to reduce their body weight at minimum risk.

At present, almost three million people suffer from the condition, with some 117, 000 new cases diagnosed this year. The vast majority of patients, over 90%, have type 2 diabetes, which is believed to be triggered by obesity and an unhealthy lifestyle in general. In just one in ten patients, the condition is caused by genetic factors and is classed as type 1 diabetes.

These figures chime in with earlier information that currently type 2 diabetes is not uncommon in children, with 1,400 registered cases, whereas a few decades ago only adults were known to suffer from the condition. Scientists now know that fat adipose, the accumulation of fat, interferes with insulin regulation and this leads to diabetes.

Health experts believe that the rise in diabetes is due to the constantly growing obesity rates in the UK and warn that the condition may be extremely dangerous. People with diabetes may have problems with the eye’s retina and the kidneys and are five times more likely to have a heart attack or a stroke.

Even more concerning is the fact that The Diabetes UK charity thinks there are one million people who suffer from diabetes but have not been diagnosed and most of them do not even suspect they have the condition.

If the trial turns out successful, the operation will be offered to a large number of teenagers who need to lose weight. The procedure involves putting a balloon in the stomach and filling it with water or air, so that the patient feels full and is able to eat only a limited amount of food.

However, doctors and medical experts seem to disagree on whether this is a good idea. One of the supporters of weight loss surgery for children is Dr Neil Wright, consultant paediatrician at Sheffield Children’s Hospital. He thinks that the stress will still remain on healthy eating and physical activity, while surgery will only be offered to children with a B MI of 50 and over. These are morbidly obese teenagers, who may find it difficult to lose weight otherwise, as they very quickly experience shortness of breath and cannot exercise.

Tam Fry, honorary chairman of the Child Growth Foundation, opposes the project, saying that weight loss surgery should be the last resort and currently no real efforts to deal with the problem are being made. He thinks that attention should be shifted from cure to prevention and changing children’s lifestyle dramatically.

Many people believe that eating more can increase the feeling of warmth but experts totally disagree. On the contrary, Ahmed Ahmed, consultant gastrointestinal and bariatric surgeon at Bupa Cromwell Hospital, said that it is the brown fat that keeps people warm, whereas eating more only helps accumulate white fat, which is very unhealthy.

Bariatric Surgery expert Ahmed Ahmed

A possible reason for the winter weight gain may lie in the lower levels of melatonin, the hormone which creates the feeling of sleepiness and its release is triggered by darkness. The same hormone may affect appetite, as well, causing people to feel an urge to eat more than usual.

In addition, in winter, people tend to consume more fatty, energy-dense foods because of the feeling of dissatisfaction, caused b y the cold and dark weather. Eating such types of food provides a higher energy level but soon after that the blood sugar level drops significantly and people need more energy, thus creating a closed cycle of ups and downs, which aids fat deposit.

Experts also believe that the lower levels of vitamin D, which is accumulated in the body from the sun, may also influence weight. The vitamin can also be gained by eating more fish and by exposing one’s forearms to sunlight for about 20 minutes daily.

Until now, medical experts had not been able to find any direct link between breast cancer and excessive weight but the study from the University of Granada may prove otherwise.

Obese women have a higher Breast Cancer risk

In this study, the researchers examined 524 women with breast cancer and compared the age at which the disease developed and the women’s body mass index. Results indicated that those with higher body mass index (BMI) had the cancer at an earlier age, in comparison to the ones with a BMI within the healthy range.

Apart from obesity, another factor that was found to contribute to possible early development of breast cancer was the early age of girls’ first menstruation.

Spire Healthcare website notes that genetics is another major factor for breast cancer, as nearly 18% of the diagnosed women had family risk links. Earlier this month, another study, presented by Wales Online, pointed to the existence of a certain gene that causes weight gain, suggesting a possible link between the two independent studies.

Women are advised to maintain a healthy lifestyle, avoiding excessive weight gain, regardless of whether breast cancer is directly linked to obesity.

Even though the study does not explore the relation between permanent living in various regions, its findings about moving to areas with better socioeconomic conditions are quite conclusive. The researchers think that the results may have some important implications for the potential reduction of obesity and diabetes prevalence.

Poverty is linked to Obesity

More than 4,500 mothers living in public housing in poor areas in Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York were monitored for a period of 20 years for the research.

The results indicate that only 16% of those who moved to a better-off neighbourhood developed diabetes, whereas the figures stood at 20% for those wh o did not change their accommodation. Similarly, the rates of obesity were lower in those who moved – 14%, compared to 18% in the non-migrant group.

According to the researchers, the study proves that people’s health is more heavily influenced by the living environment than by genetics. That is why, moving to an area with better living conditions may have a positive influence over health, the duration of life and stress, they claim.

Anne Milton, the public minister for health, thinks that children should walk on their own at the age of three and it is parents’ responsibility to teach their kids to eat healthy food, to be physically active and later, to walk to school. Although she agrees that local authorities have a role to play, adopting a generally more healthy lifestyle in the family could be key for obesity prevention in childhood.

Strollers have been blamed for causing childhood obesity

The latest data available from the Department of Public Health shows that in England more than one in 10 children between the ages of two and ten are obese, with numbers soaring to one in five at the age of 11 and over. Statistics show that obesity very often onsets well before school age, so it is never too early for prevention.

The UK’s chief medical officer, Professor Dame S ally Davies, said that in order to stay fit, young children should stay active for at least three hours daily but data indicates that only one-third meet that requirement. At the same time, children eat significantly larger quantities of food, compared to previous generations.

Parents often rely on pushchairs for time-saving purposes, but they should rather consider investing in their children’s health, experts believe.

After having a weight loss surgery, patients need to follow a strict diet, eating only healthy products, because their ability to process food is typically very limited following the procedure. This makes it much more likely that the entire family makes more sensible food choices and in result, lose weight.

The report chimes in with related research, revealing that weight loss is socially contagious. Figures show that if a husband and wife join a weight-loss programme together, they are going to shed more pounds on average, compared to cases of only one spouse slimming down.

The positive effect of bariatric surgery was observed not only in weight, but also in waist circumference, physical activity levels, al cohol consumption and impulsive eating control. There was even a slight downturn in children’s TV watching time, showing that the effect was noticeable in all aspects of the family’s lifestyle.

The researchers conclude that the so-called ‘halo effect’ of weight loss surgery could prove a powerful tool for reducing obesity levels and raising awareness of the positive effect of weight loss.