A new study published in the the Lancet, a medical journal, suggests that Romanian men are the fattest in Europe, with almost one in four considered obese.
The study reveals that wordlwide one billion people were classified as obese in 2022, the latest year for which data are available.
The researchers based their findings on the weight and height measurements of more than 220 million people from roughly 190 countries.
In Europe, Turkey was the obesity capital of Europe for women, with a rate of 43%. For men it was Romania, at 38%.
On the thinness scale, French women and men were the most slender in the region with only one in ten considered obese.
The study published on February 29th found that obesity rates have doubled among adults since 1990 and quadrupled among children and adolescents.
The rates were four times higher in America, where 44% of women and 42% of men had a BMI over 30.
Obesity is typically determined by the ratio of weight (in kg) to the square of height (in metres), known as the body-mass index (BMI). In this study a BMI above 30 is considered obese.
The measure is imperfect as most bodybuilders would be classified as obese because of the weight of their muscles, despite having very little body fat, but there aren’t many bodybuilders in the world and they know they are not obese.
It’s considered however a useful rule of thumb. Studies have shown that most people with a BMI over 30 are significantly more likely to suffer from conditions like diabetes than those with a BMI of 23.
The analysis finds higher obesity rates in low- and middle-income countries than in many high-income ones. More than 60% of adults in Polynesia and Micronesia were living with obesity in 2022—the highest rate in the world.
Countries in Africa and the Middle East, historically associated with undernourishment, are now also struggling with weight gain, the report show.
