“It’s not just about weight. It’s about being seen. Being believed. Being treated like a whole person.” – Participant, More Than Weight 2025
A powerful new report from Yorkshire, England, “More Than Weight 2025” offers valuable lessons for Europe. It highlights what it really means to live with obesity and why society must act with empathy, not judgment. By combining lived experience with economic and social analysis, the report shows how compassionate, trauma-informed care can transform lives and systems alike.
The Human Impact
For too many people, living with obesity means living with stigma, isolation, and misunderstanding. According to findings from Yorkshire, England:
- 73% of people with obesity avoid social events because of their weight.
- Over 70% experience social isolation — their world becoming smaller, not by choice, but through shame and exclusion.
- 65% report emotional eating as a way to cope with distress.
- More than half live with anxiety or depression.
- 78% have at least one mental health or neurodevelopmental condition such as PTSD, ADHD, or depression.
Behind these numbers are deeply human stories of people who eat to manage pain, stress, or trauma. As one participant shared:
“I ate instead of drinking or doing drugs or slicing my skin… I’d rather be here and be fat than dead.”
The Social and Economic Toll
In England, obesity now affects 1 in 4 adults and 1 in 3 children by the end of primary school. In Yorkshire, rates are even higher with 27–28% of adults living with obesity. The NHS spends £6.1 billion each year treating obesity-related illness, projected to rise to £9.7 billion by 2050. The wider cost to the economy, through lost productivity, is estimated at £33 billion annually.
These numbers are not unique to the UK. Across Europe, obesity rates are climbing, inequalities are widening, and stigma continues to block access to effective care. The Yorkshire experience demonstrates how regional, coordinated action can bring both compassion and evidence to the centre of obesity policy.
A Call for Compassionate Change
The “More Than Weight 2025” report calls for a shift from blaming individuals to transforming systems. It urges policymakers, healthcare professionals, and communities to embed trauma-informed, person-centred approaches — care that recognises the emotional, social, and psychological realities people live with every day.
This whole-system approach, tested in Yorkshire, offers a model for European health systems seeking to build equitable, inclusive, and sustainable obesity care. It demonstrates how local insight and lived experience can guide national and cross-border action.
A Model for Europe
As the European Coalition for People living with Obesity (ECPO), we recognise the work in Yorkshire as a model of good practice for Europe, showing how empathy, data, and co-production can reshape care for millions of people. This approach could be replicated and adapted across European towns, cities, and countries, supporting our shared mission to end stigma and deliver compassionate, person-centred obesity care.
We believe that everyone deserves to be seen, respected, and supported, not shamed. We stand with those calling for compassionate, evidence-based action that tackles the real roots of obesity: trauma, inequality, and stigma. Because behind every statistic is a person, and every person deserves to live with dignity.