Author, obesity researcher .

People can be fat yet fit, however…

“People can be fat yet fit, research suggests” was the BBC headline. “People can be fat AND fit as study finds obesity doesn’t automatically lead to ill-health” claimed the Daily Mail. “Fat but fit people as healthy as normal weight ones: research” was The Telegraph’s take on the study. And the story was covered from [...]

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Inactivity killing as many as smoking (really?!)

We woke up on July 18th 2012 to the news “Inactivity ‘killing as many as smoking‘”. The headlines were from an article in The Lancet. It is free to view the article, but you need to register an email and password with The Lancet to be able to see the article. It has taken a [...]

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The men who made us fat – Episode 2

Here we go again! Episode 2 with Jacques Peretti. 24 million of us are now overweight “Our appetites supersized by big business.” This one is all about portion size. Jacques Peretti goes to Jester’s Diner in Great Yarmouth to find Britain’s biggest breakfast. The owner, Martin Smith, offers Peretti a choice of “The Big Boy” [...]

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Why trying to ‘burn off’ food is a waste of time

On 30 Dec I tweeted: “All these people ‘walking off’ indulgence make me laugh – I’d have to walk to Bristol & back (54 miles) to counter a Duchy Xmas pudding!” “Oh & that doesn’t deduct the BMR calories I would have used anyway so make that to Bath and back!” Here’s the maths! One [...]

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Exercise – personal experience – part 2

This blog has attracted a few comments – any suggestion that exercise is not going to make a person slim usually does! I also did a circular to some journalists recently and used a phrase that I have often used to make a point: “we can eat in one minute what can take an hour [...]

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Nestle and Change4life

Well done to the Children’s Food Campaign for spotting Nestle using the change4life logo as part of a promotion to get people to eat more confectionery and sugary cereal. Is there no limit to the depth to which processed food companies will stoop? Nestle have started a campaign whereby people collect tokens from their processed [...]

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Exercise – personal experience

Hi all – I’ve just got back from a week’s skiing in Italy, so here’s a blog on my experience of doing more activity than normal. Andy and I normally share 3 dog walks a day. We always do the morning half hour together and Andy generally does the night walk and then whoever is [...]

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Is aerobic exercise a waste of time?!

The headlines world-wide on 5th February 2009 were along the lines of: “MILLIONS of people who try to keep fit by jogging, cycling or going to the gym could be wasting their time, a study revealed today.” The study was an international collaboration, led by the University of London and involving teams from 14 institutions [...]

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Walk the dog or go to the gym?! (part 2)

Another article appeared on this topic in November 2009. This one was commissioned by Bob Martin (the company that does worm tablets etc). The dog product companies have obviously realised this story is a good way to get into the national press… This study was a larger study – 5,000 people, including 3,000 dog owners. [...]

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Walk the dog or go to the gym?!

The following research was commissioned by Butcher’s Dog Food food: A study of more than 1,500 dog owners and gym goers found that the average gym goer covers 468 miles per year and the average dog walker does 676 miles per year. That’s 208 more for the dog walkers! Dog owners apparently walk the equivalent [...]

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