This is the most overweight town in the UK… and there still is a north-south divide on obesity
New figures have revealed the towns and cities where people need to start shedding the pounds
WITH a quarter of people in the UK said to be overweight, new figures have revealed Britain's fattest town.
And they have shown that Boston in Lincolnshire, has the highest rate of obese residents with 34 per cent of people living there overweight.
The study, which was carried out by fitness app WE:BO using data from the Office of National Statistics, also found that the towns of Barnsley, Mansfield, Rotherham and Fenland in Cambridgeshire, made up the top five most overweight places.
In contrast, Canterbury in Kent was named as the town with the healthiest weight with only 22.4 per cent of people there needing to shed the pounds.
Dorchester also rated highly as healthy, as did Welwyn Hatfield, Woking and then London making up the top five.
And the full list of towns and cities clearly show a north-south divide, with the most overweight places tending to be up north with the south deemed as healthier.
Meanwhile the stats also showed that the 20 most overweight cities have 22% more takeaways per 100,000 people than their healthier counterparts and also have 44% less people per gym than the slimmer cities.
Sanjeev Virdi, co-founder of we:bo said: "Obesity has risen sharply in the last 10 years.
“As personal fitness trainers we were really interested in seeing if there was any correlation between obesity rates and things like average wages, the number of fast food outlets and even the number of gyms available.
MOST READ IN LIVING
"We have a responsibility in the UK to help those on lower wages to access to helpful and tailored exercise and nutrition advice. This can no longer be the preserve of the affluent and famous."
It is believed that the obesity crisis is costing the UK economy at least £27billion each year and is putting the NHS under extreme pressure.
Recently, we told you how the laziest countries in the world have been revealed.
We also revealed the reason why you can't stop thinking about chocolate and what your cravings really mean.