The Mind Performance Health Podcast

Obesity: Australia's Silent Killer

• Michael Pritchatt • Episode 29

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Obesity has officially surpassed smoking as Australia's number one health risk factor—a shocking revelation from the 2024 Australian Burden of Disease Study that demands our immediate attention. The statistics are alarming: 66% of Australian adults and one in four children now classified as overweight or obese, with Australians collectively losing 5.8 million years of healthy life last year alone.

As Michael Pritchett explains, this crisis persists despite fitness facilities being more accessible than ever. The disconnect lies in a fundamental misunderstanding of energy balance—many people diligently attend gyms without realizing that their 200-500 calorie workouts are being completely offset by poor nutritional choices outside the gym. This creates a frustrating cycle where effort doesn't translate to results, leading many to abandon their health goals altogether.

What's particularly concerning is that while Australians are living longer lives, the quality of those additional years is deteriorating. Health issues, mobility limitations, and chronic diseases increasingly dominate our later decades—but it doesn't have to be this way. Through simple yet consistent actions like prioritizing whole foods, achieving 10,000 daily steps, understanding caloric needs, and making smarter environmental choices, we can dramatically alter our health trajectories. The path forward isn't about perfection but about sustained small changes that compound over time, creating a foundation for not just longer lives, but vibrant, energetic ones filled with possibility rather than limitation.

Ready to break free from becoming another statistic? Download our free body transformation guide through the show links or email michael@myperformancehealth.com.au to take the first step toward reclaiming your health potential today.

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Mind Performance Health Podcast. You're joined by Michael Pritchett, the founder of MPH Personal Training and also MPH Nutrition. I'm a coach to everyday Australians, elite athletes, bodybuilders and high performers, and on this podcast I want you to make or my goal is to make you aware that seven out of 10 Australians are obese and overweight, and also one out of four kids are obese or overweight, and I don't want you to be one of them. So I'm going to try and put you in the right environment, give you knowledge and motivation so you can actually take action on your health and fitness goals, because if you are obese or you're overweight outside healthy body fat ranges, you have more chances for blood sugar issues, blood pressure issues, cholesterol, lack of confidence. You don't have the body of your dreams, nor the health of your dreams. So I want to put you in the right environment so you can take action and make a change. Now in today's episode, we're going to talk about a scary stat. That is the real cost of obesity. Now in front of me I have the Australian Burden of Disease Study 2024. This study was done in Australia last year and I usually say and it's shown that being overweight or obese is the second leading risk factor to early death, only second to tobacco. You may have heard me say that before. If not, you've heard it now. But guess what? In 2024, being overweight or obese actually was Australia's number one health risk, surpassing tobacco and smoking, which is crazy. So at the moment, being overweight or obese is actually the highest health risk factor to early death. Some stats here you need to be aware of Australians lost 5.8 million years of healthy life last year due to disease and premature death. 8.3% of total disease's burden is caused by obesity, more than smoking and poor diet, and 66% pretty much 7 out of 10 Australians they found as well are obese or overweight. And basically throughout that study, the experts are warning Australians can be living longer, but they're in worse health and it's a lot of pressure on the healthcare system. So as you're getting older, yes, you might be living longer, but the quality of life, your vitality, your longevity is actually taking a negative impact. That's what they're finding is, as Australians are aging, their quality of life is actually degrading. And I don't know about you, but I value being as healthy as possible as I grow up. I value being as strong as possible, functional, brain-wise, physical energy, managing stress best we can and not going backwards. I mean, what's the point of being here if you're not going to be at your peak kind of health? All right, I think that and I sit down with a lot of clients when they join our personal training service is that a lot of values, especially those that are in their 30s and even a lot younger these days, 20s, if I was to think about it. A lot of clients I see are getting more health conscious than ever. All right, and I think because they're seeing what's happening to their family members, their friends themselves, and they don't want to either keep going down that path or they don't want to end up down that path.

Speaker 1:

So why is obesity getting worse in Australia? So you've heard that stat now that it's overtook last year smoking as the leading risk factor for early death. But why is it getting worse? Australians are getting lazier. I've seen it. I see it in consultations, I see it in everyday life being the fact that we're more controlled by media, social media. Our attention span is getting worse because everyone's trying to control our attention. I think that it's a lot easier to sit at home and consume entertainment on your phone or Netflix than even going to the movies and spending some movement walking around to get to the movies. I don't know about you, but gone are the days where I would go to the movies often to watch something that was of interest. Now it can all be done just at home on Netflix or downloading the movies on some streaming platform. So look, laziness is actually possibly deteriorating your health. I think that's a big factor and that impacts how many calories you're burning per day because of less movement.

Speaker 1:

But one interesting thing too is that there's gyms everywhere. It's easy to find a gym in your local area, where I'm at, western sydney or northwest sydney, you know, 10 years ago there weren't that many gyms, but where we are today you could walk just down the road from where we're at, from our personal training studio where we're recording this, and there's probably within a couple kilometer probably 10 gyms. They're everywhere and they're getting full. They are. People are going to the gym. Now, if they're using the gym membership, that's a different story. But they try to go or they try to have the intention. But you've got to understand when you're at the gym and it really depends on your intensity of training as well.

Speaker 1:

A lot of you out there do not train intense enough to burn a decent amount of calories when you go to the gym, or you might just do a bit of cardio and not even burn that much afterwards, but the amount of calories burnt while being at the gym is being offsetted by what you're eating outside the gym. So it's great that you're going and being active, but are you actually optimizing things? Are you breaking past your plateau? I sit down with a lot of people that are going to the gym but their health is actually going backwards. And they may be going three, four, five days a week, but they're not seeing the progress with their body fat loss because they're literally just offsetting it with the amount of calories and food and poor nutrition they're having on the outside. So it's not just getting to the gym, it's putting yourself in the right environment to make sure you are on point with your nutrition as well Very, very important.

Speaker 1:

So gyms are full, but daily movement, once again, is at an all-time low and there's more higher calorie foods, low nutrition, processed foods. There's a lot of things that are against you. Not that you can't overcome it, especially if you show a bit of adversity, delayed gratification. These are all things that can help. But even healthy food options that you're being promoted about and to right, like protein bars, you've got all these alternatives for even chips or sugar-free options. These can be sometimes, they can be better in some cases, but you still need to be aware of calorie control. You still need to be aware if the foods you're eating are causing inflammation. Just because they're sugar-free doesn't mean the artificial sweeteners aren't going to cause issues or inflammation. You've got to be very aware of what you're consuming, because all of this combined is going to make your weight loss goals much, much harder and keep you at a higher body fat percentage. So gyms are everywhere. It's hard to find one. I'm sitting down with a lot of people that are going to the gyms but they're just not seeing their results because it's everything you do outside that session that's offsetting the calorie or energy balance and other things too, like when I sit down with clients.

Speaker 1:

I try to get a bit of an understanding of your behaviors. You know, are you on point during the week? What are the stories you tell yourself? What's holding you back? Do you believe that okay, just because you've gone to the gym five days a week this week for five days, that on the weekend you can actually just consume all the food you want. These limiting beliefs that can actually offset your results. So it's important to also just be aware of the stories you tell yourself, which I've covered before, the limiting beliefs you have, because they will hold you back and keep you obese or overweight. How you change that, get in the right environment, how you can change that, is honestly catch yourself with your negative self-talk because at the end of the day, that's what's keeping you obese or overweight is what you're telling yourself.

Speaker 1:

So, yeah, just be aware, when you go to the gym, you might burn anywhere between 200, 500 calories. A really, really hard gym workout might be just above 500 calories, so it's not that much. And, like I just touched on, a lot of you out there are not training hard enough, so you might be only burning a few hundred calories or a couple hundred calories, but then you'll go outside and you will consume even if it's liquid or a food a thousand calories in one sitting. So just be very mindful of the impact of your output, being aware that, yep, you've burnt some calories, but don't go outside and ruin all your heart work straight afterwards, because then you end up in a surplus, not a calorie deficit. Right, just for you that are not aware to lose weight, you need to be in a deficit of calories. So we have energy balance, meaning that there's a certain amount of food theoretically that you can eat, or you can eat that will maintain your body weight. There's a certain amount of food calories. If we use that as the measurement, where you go over that line maintenance and that will make you put on weight, that's called surplus because we've got a surplus of energy coming in so we store it, then we've got a deficit phase or balance as well, where that's going to be the food you're eating. You don't have enough to store, so you're going to tap into your storages to use for energy. Hence why it's called a deficit. We want to be an average deficit for the week. Just be mindful that it's easy to knock yourself out of that if you're not paying attention to your nutrition.

Speaker 1:

Some simple things that I think you can do right now. All right, and this is more. Look, there's a lot of information out there, and one saying I really like is that we got to be reminded more than we need to be taught, because a lot of the time I sit down with you guys and you're like yep, I know what to do, I'm just not doing it. So, either, that's so like. You just lack the self-accountability, hence why you get in the environment. It keeps you on track because you've got the support and you get, amongst others, that are being accountable to their goals. That can help. But things that you can take action on right now very simple, tangible things is to move for 10,000 steps per day, whether you get up in the morning earlier before work and go for a walk, whether you and I highly recommend you get a watch, either Apple Watch or a Fitbit to measure your steps and you actually calculate, to have an understanding of how much 10,000 steps is per day and to also realize what you were doing before and the difference. But 10,000 steps per day can be a great way to help your weight loss and fat loss goals, and a very simple task most of you can do All right and take the stairs. Do little things like just be conscious, like, instead of taking the lift, take the stairs. Little choices like this day to day will actually compound up over time and, as I've touched on in other episodes, your behaviors, your choices will either compound for you with your health in a great way or it'll come back negative. So just make the right decisions.

Speaker 1:

Eating real food Philosophy we follow at Mind Performance, health Foods that are fish gathered, plucked and hunted is what we want most of our diet to be like. Now I'll speak for myself. Do I sometimes have? I don. I don't drink soft drink. The only time I've really drink and soft drink Coca-Cola would be even the last time was when I did an ultra marathon where I needed the sugars. There are some times where you can have that kind of stuff to a degree, but really it's just getting the sugars for the output. For most Australians that aren't doing marathons or ultra marathons or any endurance-based training, I don't recommend soft drinks. There are times where I would have sugar-free soft drinks, whether it's like Coke Zero, pepsi Max. They can be used at times.

Speaker 1:

I personally have an issue with too much artificial sweeteners. It can upset the stomach. But making small swaps like that can be okay, though you can't have it in excess. One can every now and then is fine, but if you do it daily or have X amount, it could cause issues with your weight loss goals in terms of inflammation throughout your stomach. So just be mindful how foods react with you Fish, gathered, plucked and hunted, foods that are from the earth, meats, vegetarian.

Speaker 1:

There's plenty of choices of food that you can pick. I just recommend you follow that philosophy fished, gathered, plucked, hunted Meats, vegetarian options, fruits. When you go shopping, pick the right stuff and prioritize the right stuff and start with the right stuff. So what I mean by that is when you're cooking dinner, lunch, breakfast, whatever it is, prioritize your whole foods. It'll help keep you fuller due to the volume of food. And if you ever need any help to have an understanding of what whole foods are, we have our body transformation guide. You can check it out in the show links of this podcast, or you can check it out in the links down below if you're listening to this on YouTube or watching this on YouTube. Or you can check it out in the links down below if you're listening to this on YouTube or watching this on YouTube. Or you can even email me at michael at myperformancehealthcomau, and I'll send over our digital copy for free, but there'll be references of what types of food in there and how to prep them. That'll help keep you on track. Okay, so if you're not sure I can help. You have the skills. There's no excuse. You have that as a resource.

Speaker 1:

So eat real food, prioritize real food. It'll help your cravings, it'll help your body composition. You need to cut out the junk food, the liquid calories, even small swaps. You'll be amazed that if you cut out putting sugar in your coffee, how much of that will make a difference. You'll be amazed that if you swap the soft drink every now and then for the sugar-free option, how much that makes a difference. Increasing your water day-to-day will make a difference, and those that prioritize this will have a better quality of life because they're doing the actions and behaviors that lead to a better quality of life. If you don't, well, like the statistics said, you're going to end up like one of them where you grow older and then you're just going to degrade your health and not have the best vitality.

Speaker 1:

Tracking calories, I do think, for everyone to get a good understanding of what food does. I think it is important to track your calories at some time in your life, as early as possible, and learn it as correctly as possible. Why? Because I think it's important just to have the understanding of okay, this much calories helps me lose weight. This much calories maintains my weight. This much calories puts on weight and that target can change over time because your output like if you were doing more output as a labor-intensive job potentially you'll be able to eat more food because you've got more energy to burn versus if you're sedentary. But I do think it's important once in your life to do it properly so you have an understanding. You don't need to do it forever, okay, but once in your life to do it so you have the skills and understanding and then that can influence your decisions as you go forward when you're doing portion control or thinking of what to cook.

Speaker 1:

Starting with calories, the next step is to look at macros. Calories will help you with your weight loss, weight gain or even weight maintenance. The macros is going to help with your body composition. Very simply, how much of you is muscle, lean body mass, how much of you is fat? There's many other things in between that, but just to keep it in a simple context, how much of you is muscle, lean body mass, how much of you is fat? That's body composition. Now, with that, your macros can dictate your body composition with your weight loss or weight gain or weight maintenance. So I do recommend you get a bit of understanding on learning how to calculate macros.

Speaker 1:

Once again, in that body transformation guide, we have ideas and targets that we've seen work in the trenches and achieve the results with our before and afters and help clients feel and perform at their best. So you can download that and check it out there. Very simple, it's all there. Once again, no excuse. You just got to actually action and put in a little bit of effort to learn it, but the effort you put in will pay off for the rest of your life, all right. So whether you're downloading app like MyFitnessPal Chronometer or other there's many fantastic ones out there I do recommend you actually start taking action and finding out what your deficit calories are to help you with long-term weight loss goals. I think there's a lack of quality education out there, and that's why the healthcare system's under a bit of stress, as well as not being in the right environments. A few tips there, but once again, this is just a reminder Get moving more, eat cleaner, start eating more whole foods, make the right swaps.

Speaker 1:

Make the right swaps. It's okay to reward yourself every now and then, but remember, over time you need to be. If your goal is fat loss, weight loss, you need to be in an average deficit of calories week in and week out to actually achieve that. Working out, going to the gym a lot of you go to the gym. You're not going to burn that much calories, so don't stuff up all your work by consuming high calorie foods, dense foods. Afterwards they're not going to serve your goals. Don't waste your time. All right. So if you found this helpful, please give a like to this podcast. You can subscribe to the channel as well. We've got our free resources down below, and if you ever need help with your own fitness goals or even with our checking out our supplements, you can click the links as well. Okay, so thanks, guys. See you in the next one. Remember, don't become part of the statistic. Take action on your health and fitness goals and make a change for yourself and for your family as well. See you in the next one.