The shadow health secretary has said there can be "no excuse" for being fat.
Andrew Lansley delivered a speech to the Reform think-tank on Wednesday in which he argued that environmental factors are not to blame.
The Conservative spokesman suggested that personal responsibility was the best cure for obesity and tapped into the new trend of thinking around social norms.
"Tell people that biology and the environment causes obesity and they are offered the one thing we have to avoid: an excuse," he said.
"As it is, people who see more fat people around them may themselves be more likely to gain weight."
"We can and want to remove the excuses by providing an improved environment but it is no substitute for discipline and self-esteem," Lansley added.
"People need to know that the buck stops with them," he said.
Lansley also pledged that a Conservative government would not impose extra regulation to tackle the obesity crisis.
The Tories will instead seek voluntary agreements with industry on public health measures.
The plans will be drawn up by a working group to be chaired by Dave Lewis, the head of the consumer goods group Unilever.
Party Response: Labour
Ann Keen MP, Labour's Health Minister said:"Of course everyone agrees that individuals have to take responsibility for their health.
"It's good to see the Conservatives recognising the public health impact that the ban on smoking in public places is having, even if David Cameron opposed it.
"But for all Andrew Lansley's rhetoric about individual responsibility, his speech today confirms that the Conservatives would cut health spending in poorer areas and that would take funding from NHS services that need it most."
Stakeholder Response: Association for Physical Education
Professor Margaret Talbot, chief executive of the Association for Physical Education told ePolitix.com:
The Association for Physical Education (afPE) has been concerned for some time, about the lack of coordinated action about children's health. The budget allocations from the Department of Health for preventive measures are wholly inadequate; and there is little evidence of coherent policy thinking on the issue. afPE has published a position statement on the role of physical education in promoting physical activity for health, see www.afpe.or.uk
The rising incidence of childhood obesity is only one of several trends which directly affect health and well being. It is regrettable that the debate on combating childhood obesity has been repeatedly high-jacked, by both the commercial interests of the food industry, and by moral panics about junk food and diet – energy input. It is rare that debates include consideration of energy output, i.e. exercise and physical activity. This is sad, since physical activity not only has the potential to help avoid obesity through balancing output and input.
It is time to recognize that this issue requires radical action and excellent leadership, involving many agencies to ensure that young children, who cannot be "blamed" for developing unhealthy food and inactivity habits if they are lacking examples of good practice, avoid the debilitating and unhealthy lifestyles which lead to childhood and adult obesity.
Physical education is a statutory entitlement for all children aged 5-16 in the UK, yet it is woefully under-resourced, especially in regard to initial training for primary teachers, many of whom receive as little as six hours preparation to teach physical education in their initial training. This means that, despite some primary schools being able to offer children excellent programmes of physical education during the age phase when they are most skill hungry and likely to be physically active, many others cannot, because of teachers' lack of confidence, as a direct result of inadequate initial training. This is a systemic weakness which could be fixed, given the political will, and without extra funding!
afPE invites Ministers, other politicians and decision-makers to cease the piece-meal approaches which have been utilised so far to children's health; and commit to a comprehensive and pre-emptive approach which uses all available systems of delivery – including schools, community agencies, family policy and broad policies to promote physical activity along with healthy eating.
