We’re getting fatter ... but eating LESS

BRITONS are eating fewer calories compared with 40 years ago despite record levels of obesity. Researchers blame our couch potato lifestyles, which mean we burn off far less energy.

A Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs report shows we consume an average of 14 per cent fewer calories a day compared with the 1970s.

Typically an adult in 1974 ate 2,534 calories a day but by 2015 this had fallen to 2,173 calories. Professor Philip James, president of the International Association for the Study of Obesity, said our increasingly inactive lifestyles, with a dramatic reduction in physical work, meant we need fewer calories.

The figures for calorie intake may be misleading, however, as they are an average for all age groups. The elderly eat far less – and may bring the average down – whereas middle-aged adults are likely to be consuming far more.