article_snippet: Number of seriously overweight children has soared in recent years as Ministers have failed to tackle the problem, said Professor Paul Gately.
article_snippet: Official statistics suggest childhood obesity rates have plateaued in recent years –
article_snippet: But Prof Gately, who treats obese patients, said the figures disguised the fact that the country’s fat youngsters were now ‘getting fatter’.
article_snippet: Speaking at an event to discuss whether people were too worried about childhood obesity, he said the problem was ‘much worse’ than many feared.
article_snippet: ‘Unfortunately, those children who are already obese are getting fatter.
article_snippet: So more deprived communities are getting more obese.
article_snippet: ‘think very carefully about that’, he told a meeting at the Policy Exchange think-tank in London, because ‘obese children tend to become obese adults’.
article_snippet: Prof Gately, an exercise and obesity specialist at Leeds Metropolitan University, believes successive governments squandered billions on scattergun attempts to protect all children from obesity – when only some were actually ‘at risk’.
article_snippet: Arguing many obese people were victims of circumstance, Prof Gately, an exercise and obesity specialist at Leeds Metropolitan University claimed the current Government’s policy of emphasising ‘personal responsibility’ over weight led to people feeling blamed, which was counterproductive.
article_snippet: rofessor Paul Gately (pictured) says the number of seriously overweight children has soared in recent years as Ministers have failed to tackle the problem .
article_snippet: And Prof Gately, an exercise and obesity specialist at Leeds Metropolitan University accused local councils of spending only minuscule amounts on obesity prevention or on helping those affected, even though the problems ‘dwarfed’ other public health issues that had money lavished on those affected, such as sexually transmitted infections.
article_snippet: Tam Fry, of the National Obesity Forum, said: ‘If we only had a real policy for preventing children from getting fat in the first place, we would not have ridiculous figures like this.
highlights_snippet: Number of seriously overweight children has soared in recent years .
  
highlights_snippet: Expert has warned that fat youngsters are now 'getting fatter' 