One fifth of world’s adults will be obese by 2025, study predicts

About a fifth of all adults around the world will be obese by 2025, with potentially disastrous consequences for their health, according to a study.

The research published by the Lancet medical journal says there is zero chance that the world can meet the target set by the UN for halting the climbing obesity rate by 2025.

“Over the past 40 years, we have changed from a world in which underweight prevalence was more than double that of obesity, to one in which more people are obese than underweight,” said senior author Prof Majid Ezzati from the school of public health at Imperial College London.

“If present trends continue, not only will the world not meet the obesity target of halting the rise in the prevalence of obesity at its 2010 level by 2025, but more women will be severely obese than underweight by 2025.”

The English-speaking world is particularly badly affected. By 2025, the UK will have the highest obesity among both men and women in Europe, at 38 per cent, say the researchers. Almost a fifth of the world’s obese adults (118 million) live in just six high-income English-speaking countries – Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the UK and the US. More than a quarter (50 million) of the world’s severely obese people also live in these countries.

Obesity is commonly measured by BMI (body mass index, which is body mass divided by the square of the body height) a measure which has well known flaws at an individual level, since muscular athletes may have a high BMI without being obese. But it is the best-used measure for being over and underweight across whole populations.

People with a BMI below 18.5 are considered underweight while 35 or higher is considered severely obese and 40 or higher is morbidly obese. People with very high BMIs are considered to be at risk of heart disease, diabetes, cancer and other serious health problems.