The Mind Performance Health Podcast

Fighting Australia's Obesity Epidemic

• Michael Pritchatt • Episode 30

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Mind Performance Health Podcast. My name is Michael Pritchett, owner and founder of MPH Personal Training and MPH Nutrition. I'm a coach to everyday Australians fighting the war against obesity. I help elite bodybuilders, I help elite athletes and high performers. With my team and with this podcast, I just want to bring around the idea and awareness that 7 out of 10 Australians are living with obesity or being overweight, and one out of four kids are actually living with obesity or being overweight. And that trend is only coming up, as per the Obesity Hub research in Australia. And with this podcast, I just want to put you in the right environment to help influence your actions, your habits, with your own health and fitness goals, so you don't become part of that statistic, okay? Because it doesn't lead to good stuff. It leads to things like high blood pressure, cholesterol issues, cancer, even and early death. I want you to have the best quality of life, so I'm going to give you actionable steps, give you a bit of motivation and some takeaways and ideas to help take action on your health and fitness goals. So let's lock in Now today I've got my notes. We're going to talk about the growing obesity crisis in Australia on today's episode, but before I do so I'm going to give some client wins. I've got three for today in this episode. A big shout out to Liam Liam's. In Canberra he's doing a physique competition men's physique for his first competition. He is absolutely shredded. In six weeks' time he will be on stage for the ICN Canberra show. Big shout out to you, liam. He's come a long way. He's got his six-pack out. He's got a good amount of lean muscle. He's ready to do his thing.

Speaker 1:

Kylie started with MPH and had a goal to fit into a size 8 dress comfortably. We got that feedback this week that she has hit that, which is great. So well done, kylie. Keep up your body composition goals getting more tone, dropping that body fat. Well done. And Agni, all the way from the UK we're in Australia. Agni's all the way in the UK Busy lawyer, busy mother. She's lost three kilos in three weeks. She's got her hands full with work. She's got her hands full with family, but she's prioritizing her time when she can. She's got a tailored nutrition and training program and she's lost three kilos of body fat coming down in three weeks. So well done and a big shout out to you, agni. Okay, I think it's important that we recognize the efforts of our community and this is only a few clients of many, but nonetheless I want to give a big shout out to our community for putting in your work with your own health and fitness goals.

Speaker 1:

So let's get into today's episode the growing obesity crisis in Australia. Now I'm looking at my notes here and I have a bit of data and research that's recently come out. This year. Recent data reveals a concerning trend Obesity rates in Australia have nearly doubled over the past two decades. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, approximately 30% of Australian adults are now living with obesity. 30% that's a big number of Australian adults living with obesity. Experts predict that if current trends continue, 80% of the age between 18 to 30, so 80% of the demographic between 18 to 30 will be overweight by 2038. Now, at the time of this recording, we're 2025.

Speaker 1:

I set a prediction that I reckon 90% of adults in this same kind of age category 90% will be overweight or obese by the year 2050, before I even saw this. So this is just confirming that. So this is saying hey, in the next 13 years, 80% of 18 to 30-year-olds will be overweight or obese. Currently it's 70% around that mark. So, as it leads to here. This could lead to a significant decrease in life expectancy, with men losing up to eight years and women up to six years, so decreasing your quality of life, but also decreasing the length of life. So very scary and alarming numbers. Once again in line with the prediction where I say, by 2050, 90% of adults will be overweight or obese. I say by 2050, 90% of adults will be overweight or obese. So what's actually?

Speaker 1:

In other episodes I talked on this like what's happening, but I want you to think like it's everything from the transition of school into the work environment, what we're being taught at school, what we're being taught by our family environment. These are all things that play a role into this trend just getting worse. Simply and I've seen it with our personal training service. So, compared to 2016, 2015, when we first started, to where we are now, 10 years later I've seen the conversations. I've seen that, quite frankly, we get people in and we teach them a physical culture. It's normal to eat healthy, try to give an environment where we stay accountable and those in the community are working on their health and fitness goals and progressing, but those environments are changing. I've found that when I sit down with clients. There's a lot of excuses they're not moving as much because of things like working from home. They're not moving as much. Even small things like going to walking around, to go to movie theaters because now we've got Netflix. All these little things are compounding up, and compounding either works for you or it works against you. And when it comes to our environment in this society, when it comes down to the technology, the excuses that are being made, it's compounding against us in terms of the trend. So I believe that's partly the reason why this is happening. The study's kind of confirmed as well, especially with environment. So something needs to be addressed and something needs to change.

Speaker 1:

One thing that I think we need to focus on when it comes to strategies is promoting way more movement. I don't think it's bad to actually get moving more when it comes to even just your daily activity going to work. Like I said, everyone's working from home now, but they're more sedentary. They literally will just get up from bed, go to the office, walk to the kitchen and that's it. So working environments, going back into the city or wherever you were working at previously before yes, it may be sometimes a hassle for some of you, but in terms of your health it actually might be better. So I don't think it's a bad thing from your health perspective it might actually be a positive. And that's one thing I've noticed with clients. They say, hey, I was moving so much more between the train going to work or getting to the train than what I am now working from home. So, yeah, maybe a hassle to go back to work environment in the office, but it may actually promote better health and longevity for yourself.

Speaker 1:

When I also sit down, one thing to be aware of is your daily existence, like what you do day to day. So when we sit down with clients, I really try to understand what their day to day looks like. What time do they wake up? What's the first thing they eat? What's the first thing they do? Is it rushing to get the kids out the door to go to school daycare? Is it looking at your emails? What are you eating? What's going through your mind in the morning? What are you paying attention to? And then during work hours, it's the same. What's your work environment like? Is it stressful? Is there a lot of demand? Do you have time to think or you don't have time to think?

Speaker 1:

These days everyone is getting more restricted with the time their bandwidth mentally, and I think that's impacting decisions. So it'll always be like a quick decision because your bandwidth is getting used up. So a lot of our clients come see us to not think as much or not be confused or not have information overload. We do the thinking on our side with what we're best at and then we help a tailored plan so they can follow. So I think partly too, is that the bandwidth of people with their demands of work, stressful environments once again, our modern society is causing that bandwidth to be drained, which is impacting not the best quality decisions for your health. So there's a few things, I think, that lead into this trend actually raising up.

Speaker 1:

But at the end of the day I usually say this with clients too is that you either need to learn the skills or you need to get in the right environment where you execute the skills With clients. When they join our program, we put them into an environment, whether it's online or face-to-face. They have the accountability, they have the support, they have someone who's coaching them, where it's normal to go to the gym, be healthy, eat for performance, which brushes off and helps influence habits. Sometimes when clients stop working with us. They may have the skills and continue, which is great, but because they don't have that environment anymore, because they've stopped coming in or stopped the coaching, because they haven't, they've lost the accountability. They could also go backwards and put on weight. And it was never a skill issue necessarily. It was always the execution of those skills and what made you execute those skills was being in the right environment and having those around you keep you accountable and also influence your habits on a day-to-day.

Speaker 1:

That's how powerful an environment or coaching can be and I think that's the key to help this trend go backwards. It's getting the kids in the right environment. It's getting yourself in the right environment so it can be normal and not opposed to your health and fitness goals. So it's something to be very, very aware of. Getting to the gym is more important now, I think, than ever, which is great. But how many people do you see go to the gym but not actually change? Because they're not paying attention to what they're doing, they're not paying attention to their food on the outside, but at least they're doing something and I respect that. But if you're overweight, I think, and you're obese and you're not liking where you're at. I think paying attention more to just going to the gym will make a difference, and that's going to come down to the calories you're eating day to day, but also the calories you're burning throughout the day as well. You've got to pay more attention to your nutrition, the way that's structured, the quality of your nutrition, and actually make a decision to stick to it.

Speaker 1:

So, guys, very, very scary predictions coming up. So, guys, very, very scary predictions, uh, coming up um 80 of adults, 2038 overweight and obese. My prediction is 90 by the year 2050. At the end of the day, you need to make a decision to keep yourself accountable, learn the skills. We have our ebooks you can download in show notes or, if you can't see them because you're listening to our podcast on a different platform, you can reach out to us on instagram, my performance health au. Send a message and I'll flick over the eBooks or my team will flick over the eBooks so you can get some skills and education.

Speaker 1:

But also listening to things like podcasts can be fantastic, whether it's this podcast or other podcasts that can influence your behaviors, because you're being put into an environment where it's normal and helpful to stay healthy and fit. Physical culture is very, very important, and more important now than ever. It's the only way we're going to battle the trend. All right, so very alarming statistic. I thought that I might share on this episode, but nonetheless it's going to come down to you, the listener, actually taking action, all right. So thank you guys for tuning. In. Final words on this one is just put yourself in the right spot where you have a chance to win. If you ever need help, reach out to our team. Check out our supplements as well. They might be little one percenters to make you better, and if you ever need our resources, once again reach out and we'll send them over. So thank you guys for tuning in. I'll see you in the next one and get after your health and fitness goals.