Advice given to help people lose weight needs to be less “middle class” if it is to be effective, according to the county’s director of public health.

An in-depth report into obesity shows 63% of adults in Kent are overweight or obese, while a third of children in year six (33.2%) fall under the same category.

The issue is particularly prevalent in areas such as Swale, Maidstone and Thanet – while numbers in the likes of Tunbridge Wells and Canterbury are lower than the national average.

Andrew Scott-Clark, Kent County Council’s director of public health, claimed on Friday (December 14) that healthy lifestyle advice is not being picked up by those that need it.

He said: “How do we get the message to those particular populations who we know will probably benefit the most among deprived communities?

“Talking about lifestyle is not going to wash with them – we know that – so we have to get much more sophisticated about how we actually message those communities.

“You could make the argument that for too long we’ve held the middle class message for the middle class population, who have actually heard and responded.

“What we don’t have is how to get to those communities who are stressed, have chaotic lifestyles and really need support.”

Medway Council’s director of public health James Williams told the Kent and Medway joint health and wellbeing board “there’s isn’t one answer” as it “hasn’t happened overnight”.

Mr Scott-Clark also suggested there needs to be a focus on both physical exercise and diet to help tackle the obesity problem, which has seen hospital admissions soar in recent years.

He added: “We find that people don’t know how to cook, don’t know what’s in their food, or where it comes from.

“It’s not unusual to find children think chips come from the freezer rather than a potato that was grown in a field.”