with Bandage and cailinlochgarman, what hope had we of a good representation of Wexford…
NEARLY half the population is overweight, according to a new survey.
While many women spend hours reading magazines in the hope of finding a new miracle diet, it seems their husbands and boyfriends only need to look in the mirror.
Some 61pc of Irish males admitted to being overweight, compared to 39pc of women, according to the survey conducted by Hibernian Aviva Health.
More than 5,000 people took part in the online survey, which used the body mass index (BMI) system.
BMI is a useful tool that compares a person’s weight and height, to help establish what a person’s ideal healthy body weight should be. A BMI greater than 25 is considered to be overweight while anything above 30 is considered obese.
“Irish males are great believers that their problems will go away if they don’t think about them,” said GP Stephen Murphy, a member of the Hibernian Aviva health medical council.
Denial
“Many of them are stuck in that little boys’ mode of shutting their eyes and wishing their problems away and that can be particularly detrimental to their health.”
A total of 48pc of the people surveyed admitted to being overweight or obese, while almost a quarter confessed to doing no exercise at all. “With almost half of the Irish adult population being overweight, these figures are extremely worrying,” said Dr Murphy.
“Regular exercise in conjunction with a healthy diet from a young age will have a huge benefit to your health in later years and it is never too late to start a healthier approach to life.”
The most overweight counties in the survey, where the percentage of overweight respondents was the highest were: Tipperary (58pc), Limerick (55pc), Wexford (54pc), Carlow (52pc), Louth (52pc). The ‘slimmest’ were Kerry (41pc), Monaghan (44pc), Longford (44pc), Leitrim (45pc) and Laois (45pc).
only thing about all that shite anyway is the BMI is severely flawed for anyone who plays sport. technically, by the BMI calculator, the majority of top sports players in soccer, GAA etc are overwieght.
