Snacking and out-of-home eating mean calorie intake is under-estimated

UK – National surveys used to measure calorie intake are failing to accurately represent how much people are consuming according to a new report from the Behavioural Insight Team.

Vending machine snack_crop

The problem was identified as a result of some recent reports showing that official statistics were showing a large decline in calorie consumption over the past 40 years despite obesity rate having gone up in the same period.

Counting Calories found that reported calorie consumption is actually too low to sustain people’s current weight, even if only minimal amounts of exercise was taking place. And rather, people are burning more energy than the stats suggested.

Indeed, the report, written by Hugo Harper and Michael Hallsworth, found that this problem is getting worse over time and if the figures are corrected for this increased under-reporting, calorie consumption is in fact rising, not falling.


Source: BIT Counting Calories 

The authors identify a cluster of reasons for this increased under-reporting. As obesity has risen people are more likely to say that they are trying to lose weight – both of which drive misreporting. As people snack and eat outside the home more, consumption becomes harder to track. In addition people are less likely to respond to surveys making the data less robust.

“The Government Statistical Service has responded to our report positively and is going to change the way it measures calorie consumption as a result. We look forward to working with them to ensure that the upcoming childhood obesity strategy is informed by the best possible evidence,” said the authors.

We hope you enjoyed this article.
Research Live is published by MRS.

The Market Research Society (MRS) exists to promote and protect the research sector, showcasing how research delivers impact for businesses and government.

Members of MRS enjoy many benefits including tailoured policy guidance, discounts on training and conferences, and access to member-only content.

For example, there's an archive of winning case studies from over a decade of MRS Awards.

Find out more about the benefits of joining MRS here.

0 Comments

Display name

Email

Join the discussion

Newsletter
Stay connected with the latest insights and trends...
Sign Up
Latest From MRS

Our latest training courses

Our new 2025 training programme is now launched as part of the development offered within the MRS Global Insight Academy

See all training

Specialist conferences

Our one-day conferences cover topics including CX and UX, Semiotics, B2B, Finance, AI and Leaders' Forums.

See all conferences

MRS reports on AI

MRS has published a three-part series on how generative AI is impacting the research sector, including synthetic respondents and challenges to adoption.

See the reports

Progress faster...
with MRS 
membership

Mentoring

CPD/recognition

Webinars

Codeline

Discounts