Men becoming overweight due to 'masculine culture'
Bigger portions, binge drinking and fast food - they're all part of a 'masculine culture' apparently leading to more overweight men in South Yorkshire.
Bigger portions, binge drinking and fast food - they're all part of a 'masculine culture' apparently leading to more overweight men in South Yorkshire.
A new report says managing weight is being seen as 'feminine' and men are being encouraged to eat big portions of high-calorie food.
It's apparently making men more likely to be overweight than women.
Dr Matthew Capehorn, from the Rotherham Institute of Obesity (RIO), says there's definitely an element of it in society:
"We all know from experience that men are encouraged by their friends to drink more beer and finish off their plate, and there are programmes on TV like 'Man VS Food' where it's always a challenge to eat more. We don't necessarily find as much as that in women."
"Everybody's ended up being overweight or obese for different reasons but as a general rule we do see it in society that men do favour the high-calorie dense foods. And that may also influence how long it takes before they identify themselves as having a weight problem."
The 'Machobesity' report from Slimming World reveals that overweight men are more likely to choose high calorie ‘masculine’ foods and less likely to choose healthier ‘feminine’ foods which increases the risk of gaining more weight.
Dr Capehorn says about 30% of people who seek help from RIO are men - a proportion actually higher than most weight management services.
But he still thinks there's a reluctance from men to do something about weight problems:
"Women are generally more accepting of the fact that once they become overweight or obese they need to do something about it. And we need to really fully engage in men because obesity is fairly equal between the sexes - but there are many more men than women that are overweight."
The report also found 72% of overweight men see physical activity as a socially acceptable way for a man to try to lose weight.
Dr Capehorn says it's actually not a very good way of losing weight:
"Men tend to see it as the macho way of doing it, with physical activity. Although physical activity is brilliant for our overall cardio vascular health and fitness - it's actually a really inefficient way to lose weight. We're much better off focussing on reducing portion size and the overall calorie intake."