Obesity – Where are all the Men?

We still have an incomplete understanding as to why obesity rates between men and women are different.

By Danielle Norton November 3, 2022 Updated February 20, 2024 4 min read

Before I started writing about obesity and men, I had a quick look at my patient list just to confirm when I already knew: my weight management patients are overwhelmingly women. So, is this unique to my practice or Ireland? No, studies from the NHS found that only 10% of referrals to weight management clinics are men. So, where are all the men?

Is it that we don’t know that there is a difference in health outcomes between males and females? No. Actually, Ireland has been a pioneer; obesity was included when we were the first country in the world back in 2009 to publish a National Men’s Health Policy.