Britons eat 900 calories more a day than they think – the equivalent of 3 McDonald’s cheeseburgers

Everyone eats the equivalent of three more McDonald’s cheeseburgers a day than they admit, according to a study published today.

And thin and fat people lie about how much food they eat.

Researchers at the University of Essex analyzed food diaries completed by more than 200 Britons. They then tracked how much energy they actually burned, to find any disparities.

The results revealed that everyone, regardless of weight, distorted how much they ate, omitting an average of 900 calories of food per day.

It’s also the equivalent of five pints of lager or seven packets of salted crisps.

While obese people technically omit more calories each day than leaner people, they compensate by burning more energy moving their heavier bodies while performing daily tasks.

The study authors say their findings cast doubt on the merits of public health measures that rely on calorie counting.

The study – published in the American Journal of Human Biology – examined 221 Britons between 2013 and 2015.

The volunteers had an average age of 54, were almost evenly split by gender, and about a third had an obese BMI.

After the researchers measured the participants’ BMI, they were then asked to complete a food diary for four days to record what they ate and drank to calculate their average daily energy intake.

The scientists then asked them to drink specially prepared radioactive water for 10 days, collecting urine samples each day.

This allowed the scientists to see how much energy the participants were actually using per day, as the radioactive elements in the water disappear the more calories are used.

By comparing reported food intake and actual calories burned, researchers were able to guess how much people were eating. Participants claimed to eat 1,800 calories per day, on average.

But researchers found they actually burned 2,700 calories on average.

That left them with a gap of 900, which experts say was the extra calories they were consuming each day.

Obese people were found to consume an extra 1,200 calories every 24 hours, while thinner people underreported 800 calories.

However, larger people have been found to burn more energy per day, which equates to an additional 400 calories.

Professor Gavin Sandercock, lead author, said this was because obese people had to put on more weight during their day.

“Bigger bodies need more energy every hour of the day and especially during physical activity because shifting your weight is hard work,” he said.

He also said the results dispelled a myth that fat people lie more about how much food they ate because all body sizes in the study misreported their calorie intake.

Prof Sandercock has called for an overhaul of the government’s obesity advice which has relied on so-called calorie counting.

“Public health recommendations have historically relied heavily on self-reported energy intake values,” he said.

“Acknowledging that measurements of energy intake are incorrect could lead to the setting of more realistic goals.”

He added that “changing the narrative around obese people who lie about their energy intake” could also lead to a focus on obesity risk factors such as junk food and sugary drinks.

Recommended average calorie consumption levels remain at 2,500 calories for men and 2,000 for women, according to campaign officials.

The government recently introduced a calorie labeling initiative requiring cafes, restaurants and takeaways with more than 250 employees to display calories on prepackaged food and soft drinks.

This happened despite opposition from industry and eating disorder charities.

However, other measures proposed by No10 to tackle foods high in fat and sugar that were due to be introduced early next year have since been delayed.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has decided to scrap a ban on ‘buy one, get one free’ junk food offers and a 9 p.m. turnaround on sugary snacks in a bid to help poorer families deal with the cost of living crisis.

The measures were due to come into force in January 2023, but have proven deeply unpopular with Tory backbenchers.

Health campaigners now fear the delay could see initiatives scrapped altogether.

The Essex study follows other research this month which warned that eating a bag of crisps every day could lead to massive weight gain within a year, as Britons dramatically underestimate the number of calories in their snacks.

A report by Nesta, a charity which works for social change, has warned that Britons are grossly underestimating the number of calories in crisps and other snacks.

An extra 240 calories a day, or the equivalent of a large “purse” of Walkers, would lead to weight gain of about a stone (6.4 kg) over the course of a year, the organization has calculated. charitable.

Obesity is considered one of Britain’s biggest health problems, with the latest data showing 64% of adults were overweight or obese in 2019.

However, a new analysis from Cancer Research UK indicates that more than 42 million adults in the UK will be overweight by 2040, according to ‘wake up’ projections.

The charity’s study suggests that 71% of the country will be fat by then.

This includes 36% of people likely to be obese, meaning they will outnumber people in the least severe category for the first time.

In the United States, an estimated 73.6% of adults are overweight or obese.

Being overweight or obese is known to increase the risk of at least 13 different types of cancer and also causes other dangerous conditions such as high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes.

Treating obesity-related illnesses is estimated to cost the NHS £6 billion a year.

The Essex study has a number of limitations, the first being that its small sample size may not be representative of the wider population, with most participants coming from affluent areas.

Another limitation is that the participants knew they were the subject of a study, which could have influenced both their eating and exercise behaviors.