A MAJOR study into the state of Liverpool's health is published today - and the report paints a sorry picture.

The Health is Wealth Commission found that only one in ten people in the city are active and life expectancy is more than three years less than the national average - seven years less than in the South East.

One solution to the problem, according to the experts, is to work with urban planners to design a city that encourages people to get active, to walk or cycle instead of driving around in their cars and to spend time out enjoying open spaces.

Similarly Professor Philip James, chairman of the International Obesity Task Force, says urban designers have created environments that encourage obesity by planning public spaces around automobiles.

It would seem that we can’t blame individuals anymore for gaining weight when we all now live in environments that rely heavily on fast food, fast cars and remote controls.

With the very fabric of the environment we live conspiring against us maintaining a healthy body weight it is no wonder we are getting fatter, developing weight-related diseases and dying younger.

Successful weight watchers - and by those I mean people who maintain a healthy body weight - do a tremendous amount of exercise and burn on average 2,800calories a week.

That is a lot of calories. That’s around 28 miles of walking/jogging a week, 45km on a rowing machine or about 14 Pilates classes each week. HONESTLY.

Tony Lycholat, technical editor of Fitness Professionals magazine, writes in his column: “Hurray! Finally, experts who are prepared to say that weight management involves more than just adding the occasional flight of stairs to your daily routine or switching to skimmed milk.

“Let’s stop all this namby-pamby nonsense about little changes to activities of daily living making all the difference: let’s get brutally honest, we need to get serious.�

And serious it is.

With five people dying every day in Liverpool of heart disease or stroke and 178,000 people in the city claiming that they are in “poor health,� we need to wise up and toughen up.

While the planners create our healthy city of the future I would suggest we all take a leaf out of Mr Lycholat’s book and get serious.

“It is easy to apportion blame, he said.

“Rather than do this, my own strategy is going to be one of running those 28 miles or rowing those 45km each week - EVERY WEEK!

“And if anyone asks, young or old, I’m going to advise them to do exactly the same.�

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