Laziness is blamed for obesity in the UK

A study into how lazy British people are has found more than half of adults are so idle they'd catch the lift rather than climb two flights of stairs.

Just over 2000 people were quizzed by independent researchers at Nuffield Health, Britain's largest health charity. The results were startling.

About one in six people surveyed said if their remote control was broken, they would continue watching the same channel rather than get up.

More than one third of those questioned said they would not run to catch a bus. Worryingly, of the 654 respondents with children, 64% said they were often too tired to play with them.

This led the report to conclude that it's no wonder that one in six children in the UK are classified as obese before they start school.

Dr Sarah Dauncey, medical director of Nuffield Health, said: "People need to get fitter, not just for their own sake, but for the sake of their families, friends and evidently their pets too.

"If we don't start to take control of this problem, a whole generation will become too unfit to perform even the most rudimentary of tasks."

And Scotland's largest city, Glasgow, was shamed as the most indolent city in the UK, with 75% surveyed admitting they do not get enough exercise, followed closely by Birmingham and Southampton, both with 67%.

The results pose serious challenges for the National Health Service, where obesity-related illnesses such as heart disease and cancer have been on a steady increase for the past 40 years and are costing billions of pounds every year.