Doctors and health workers are too worried about using the term "fat," Anne Milton said, but it could help people take responsibility for their lifestyles.

"If I look in the mirror and think I am obese I think I am less worried [than] if I think I am fat," the former nurse told the BBC. "You cannot do it for them. People have to have the information."

Britain has one of the highest obesity rates in Europe, with the level steadily rising over the past 10 years.

In 2008, almost a quarter of adults and 14 percent of children were classified as obese.

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Royal College of General Practitioners chairman Steve Field welcomed Milton's comments, saying doctors need to be more honest with patients rather than tell them what they want to hear.

But some health groups warned against using the term.

"People don't want to be offensive. There is a lot of stigma to being a fat person," said Lindsey Davies, president of the UK Faculty of Public Health. "Obesity is something that happens to people rather than something they are." REUTERS