BOLTON is facing an obesity timebomb, with a shocking number of people tipping the scales and putting their health at serious risk.

About one in seven adults in the town are dangerously overweight, according to new figures from the charity Diabetes UK.

Of the almost 28,000 people classed as obese on GP registers, more than half have diabetes, which has serious health implications such as high blood pressure, heart and circulatory disease, risk of having a stroke, developing heart disease and suffering some forms of cancer.

Lesley Jones, NHS Bolton deputy director of public health, said: “Rising trends of obesity have been known for sometime and are very worrying.

“The rise is generally down to the effects of modern life, which encourages people to eat less healthily and be less active.”

Dr Ian James, a GP at Spring House Surgery, Chorley Old Road, Bolton, said: “It is a health timebomb and it is a huge concern.

“It’s very sad we have so many fat people. But Bolton isn’t worse than anywhere else, we’re all doing badly, it’s a national issue.”

People with a body mass index (BMI) of more than 30 are obese, falling into the category of morbidly obese if the BMI tops 40.

Clinicians are also worried about the implications of such a large proportion of the local population being obese.

NHS Bolton says it is a difficult problem to tackle but the organisation is working hard to help people who are overweight.

Ms Jones said: “We have a health trainers, who teach people how to live healthier, and a weight management service for people who are classed as obese to learn how to balance their diet and exercise.

“But the main issue is to make sure obesity does not set in from a young age.

“Education about healthy living is now part and parcel of the curriculum in schools.

“There’s much that needs to be done, both locally and nationally, to help stop the rise. People also need to think about what and how much they eat, and how much they exercise.”

Other projects include Clock on 2 Health, a scheme to get workplaces involved in healthy eating and exercise and increasing physical exercise opportunities and access to healthy food, for example, encouraging stores to stock more fruit and veg.

Dr James said: “The main thing to tackle is diet, families need educating and companies, like fast-food chains, need to take some responsibility.

“It’s also about a culture change, which is very difficult.

People are trying to cram so much into their lives that they are not making time for healthy cooking and exercise.”