Excess weight kills millions a year

A global study has suggested that you don’t have to be clinically obese to be in danger of dying from illnesses linked to excess weight.

Nearly 40 per cent of the four million deaths attributed to being overweight in 2015 were not considered clinically obese.

The study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, found that more than two billion adults and children suffered from health problems related to being overweight including cardiovascular illness, diabetes and cancer. But a rising percentage had a body mass index (BMI) of less than 30, which borderlines obesity.

The article has revealed that 30 per cent of the world’s population - 2.2 billion adults and children - are affected by excess weight. Its results were yielded from 195 countries and territories over a period of 35 years, from 1980 to 2015, and includes nearly 108 million children and more than 600 million adults whose BMI is higher than 30, and therefore defined as clinically obese.

Dr Christopher Murray, author of the study and director of the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, said: “People who shrug off weight gain do so at their own risk - risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer and other life-threatening conditions. Those half-serious New Year’s resolutions to lose weight should become year-round commitments to lose weight and prevent future weight gain.”

Since 1980, obesity has been increasing around the globe, doubling in more than 70 countries. The United States has the highest level of obesity among children and adults, at nearly 13 per cent of the population.

The study also found that the rate of obesity is increasing faster among children than adults, with China and India displaying the highest numbers of obese children, with 15.3 million and 14.4 million, respectively.