Diet and physical activity
Researching how diet, physical activity and maintaining a healthy weight can help people lead better lives and improve their wellbeing.
Front view shot of a multi generation family walking through a woodland forest
Our research is focused on diet, physical activity and helping people maintain a healthy body weight.
Improving what people eat and how active they are is important because not everyone is affected by these issues in the same way. People on a low income and those from ethnic minorities are more likely to experience the negative effects of health inequalities. Because of this we develop and test new ways of improving physical activity, diet and healthy weight maintenance through technology and innovation.
To make sure that our work prioritises the needs of those people most affected by health inequalities, we have partnered with the Bradford Institute of Health Research. Bradford is a city where 30% of adults are unemployed and 40% of the city’s wards are among some of the poorest in Britain. Joining forces will let our research teams tackle issues of nutrition and physical activity that impact the communities living in our cities most.
View all research projects from this theme
Play in urban spaces for health (PUSH)
Theme Diet and physical activity
Workstream Population diet and physical activity
Does time-restricted eating in children improve metabolic health?
Theme Diet and physical activity
Workstream Population diet and physical activity
PASSPORT: Creating a school-specific physical activity portfolio
Theme Diet and physical activity
Workstream Population diet and physical activity
Eating over a longer part of the day in adolescence linked to lower body weight in early adulthood, study finds
- 22 September 2025
Study shows increasing ‘healthy competition’ between menu options nudges patients towards greener, lower-fat hospital food choices
- 18 September 2025
Space for play is being ‘designed-out’ of urban childhoods
- 10 September 2025