Latest news with #overweight
The Sun
29-05-2025
- Health
- The Sun
My five year old boy was called FAT by school – he plays tons of football and goes swimming… it's got to be a joke
A FURIOUS mum has slammed the NHS for branding her five-year-old boy overweight despite him regularly playing football and swimming. Laura Atherton had given permission for slim son Jack Atherton to take part in the National Child Measurement Programme at his primary school last month. 9 9 9 9 However, the 34-year-old laughed when she received a results letter from Halton Borough Council, Cheshire, last Wednesday declaring Jack as "overweight". The mum-of-two insists her "sporty" son plays football once a week and has been going swimming since he was two months old. Angry Laura says Jack "isn't chubby at all" and blames the 'outdated' BMI (Body Mass Index) system for not understanding how kids grow at different rates. Jack is 3ft 5in and weighs 3.5st, which puts him in the 97th percentile for his age and in the "overweight" bracket (91 and above). Tech complaints manager Laura posted an explainer video to TikTok, including a picture of her "'regular" son with viewers left gobsmacked. Laura, from Widnes, Cheshire, said: "I laughed when I saw it and said 'it's got to be a joke'. "Once it settled I thought classifying him as that was really bad. It's barbaric and horrendous. "He's very active and he's always been active. He's been swimming since he was a couple of months old. "He still goes swimming every week on a Saturday and he goes to football every Monday. "He's a normal-build five-year-old and he's wearing age 4-5 clothes. I've got washboard abs & weigh 13 stone at 5ft10 but I'm 'obese' by BMI standards "It angers me because what more can we be doing? I don't think he's overweight and everyone we know is outraged." She added: "People might think I've got rose-tinted glasses on and 'maybe he's a bit chubby but she doesn't see it' but he isn't chubby at all. There's nothing to him. "If I fed him less he'd be hungry. He's a growing lad and that's obviously not something I'm going to do. "From the checks online, I think if he was 3-4cm taller then he'd be in the healthy weight bracket, which is mental because they all grow at different rates at that age. "When Jack came home last night and asked for a biscuit I wondered if he should, but why was I thinking that? It's impacted me as well, it's ridiculous. "I don't want him to be overweight and that's a choice we make every day through his meals and making sure we get fruit and veg down him. "Jack doesn't know about it and he won't know about it either, he doesn't need to." 9 9 9 Laura, who also lives with hubby Sam, 36, and their other son George, one, insists Jack's weight hasn't been brought up by medical professionals before. The National Child Measurement Programme measures the height and weight of children in reception class (aged 4-5) and year six (aged 10-11) to assess overweight and obesity levels in primary school children. The programme uses BMI for the programme, which is a measure of whether you're a healthy weight for your height, and includes a QR code on the results letter to advise parents. Laura believes such tests should be done at clinics rather than schools but doesn't feel BMI is fit for purpose anyway. 'DANGEROUS & OUTDATED' Laura said: "I'm not a doctor but I don't think BMI is fit for purpose. I think it's dangerous and outdated. "Some parents are really impressionable and if they didn't feel as strongly as I did then their kids might be going on a diet unnecessarily. "If you're a child and you're told you're overweight then that could have a real detrimental impact on their confidence and their relationship with food. "I think it's a terrible idea [to weigh kids in school]. The next check is when they go into high school and that's such an impressionable age and they'll be talking about it. "I agree with it in the correct environment for children that need help so I think these checks need to be through the doctors and school isn't the right setting." Laura's TikTok video, captioned 'I'm fuming', has been viewed almost half a million times with many comments in support of her. A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: 'The National Childhood Measurement Programme (NCMP) is vital to inform action to improve the health of all children and promote a healthier weight. 'We recognise that weight and growth can be very sensitive for some children, and their wellbeing is our priority. The privacy and dignity of children must be safeguarded at all times, and no child is forced to take part. 'School nursing teams and NCMP delivery staff measure children in a sensitive way, in private and away from other children, with weight and height information shared only with the parent or carer in a feedback letter. 'This government is shifting focus from sickness to prevention under our 10 Year Health Plan to meet our ambition of raising the healthiest generation of children ever.' 9 9
Daily Mail
22-05-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
Overweight people are publicly weighed and ordered to slim down under new rules in Turkey - with inspectors patrolling public spaces
Turkey has rolled out a nationwide scheme to stop and weigh people in public, with inspectors then telling them to slim down if they are found to be overweight. Health workers have been deployed across each of the country's 81 regions with weighing scales and tape measures as the drive to assess 10 million people by July 10 is underway. Passersby are stopped by medical examiners for spot body mass index (BMI) checks while walking through town squares, shopping centres and parks, and even as they prepare to board buses or head to football matches, according to reports. Speaking at a nursing conference last week, Turkey's Minister of Health Kemal Memişoğlu declared that '50 percent of our society is overweight.' He pointed to the various health risks associated with being overweight, telling the meeting: 'Being overweight means being sick, it means we will get sick in the future. 'Our young children are overweight, their body resistance is high and that's why they don't get sick, but when they start getting older, that weight will turn into joint and heart diseases.' But Memişoğlu was not spared the scales in Ankara last week - and was told by health officials that he was among the large proportion of the population counted as 'above normal weight'. 'Which dietitian should I go to?' he reportedly said afterwards, before adding in a follow-up post on Thursday: 'Turns out I'm a little over. It's up to me now, I'll be walking every day.' Pictures from around Turkey have shown people being guided onto weighing scales and having their height measured before their weight is calculated Another person who was checked by the inspectors, psychiatrist and academic Gökben Hızlı Sayar, wrote on X: 'I got caught in a fat checkpoint in Üsküdar Square. Luckily, they scolded me a little and let me go. 'Like drivers warning of speed traps, I tipped off three other chubby people heading that way. Solidarity, my fellow fat comrades!' Memişoğlu responded to people joking about the scheme on social media: 'Dear young people, I read what you write on social media. You are very entertaining, but the issue of being overweight is serious.' Pictures from around Turkey have shown people being guided onto weighing scales and having their height measured before their weight is calculated. The anti-obesity campaign, which is described by officials as a 'national fight' and is running under the tag line 'know your weight, live healthy,' began on May 10 and plans to survey one in eight Turks. People with a BMI over 25 are referred to state-run Family Health centres and Healthy Life centres, where they can receive free nutritional counseling and follow-up services. Turks have hit out at the measures, which many have argued point to the government being out of touch with the daily realities of soaring food prices and wage stagnation, and the impact this can have on healthy eating. The Erdogan government has also been criticised for the very public nature of the scheme, with Turks questioning why people need to be weighed in public. Meanwhile an article in Turkish daily newspaper Evrensel pointed out that the scheme was rolled out in the same week that a new generation weight loss injection was launched in Turkey - something it labelled 'a 'strange' coincidence'. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimated in 2023 that some 30 per cent of Turkish people are obese. Health experts warned earlier this year that a BMI score is not 'nuanced' enough to measure obesity, with more assessments needed before someone is told they are obese. The new Lancet Commission of more than 50 experts from around the world argued that doctors should only diagnose patients as clinically obese if they have illnesses directly caused by obesity alone, such as type 2 diabetes. BMI first gained popularity in the 1970s as a way of judging body fat. A healthy BMI is typically measured between 18.5 and 25. Anything under 18.5 is considered underweight. BMIs between 25 and 29.9 fall into overweight territory, and above 30 is considered obese. It is useful for tracking population trends in body weight, but has well-known limitations when applied to individuals, Dr Arya Sharma, an obesity researcher at the University of Alberta in Canada, told Live Science. For example, many professional athletes qualify as overweight or obese based on solely their BMI. But they have much more muscle mass, which weighs proportionally more than fat.
