75% of UK adults 'overweight'

Reported October 06, 2008

Three out of four UK adults are overweight or obese - more than previously thought, an expert said.

At least 75% are carrying too much fat even though official estimates put the figure at 66%, he said.

Dr Francisco Lopez-Jimenez, associate professor of medicine at the well-known Mayo Clinic in the US, said the way overweight and obesity is currently calculated is wrong.

He argued that body mass index (BMI) fails to distinguish between lean mass and body fat and so people in the "normal" range may still be carrying too much fat.

Dr Lopez-Jimenez said: "I believe that the UK's obesity problem is significantly worse than we thought.

"Our research has proved that one out of every five subjects with normal BMI has excess body fat and that these people are at risk from metabolic abnormalities that lead to diabetes and, eventually, to heart disease.

"Therefore it is important to correctly identify these patients from a public health standpoint and be more precise about the changing conceptualisation of obesity. It is currently reported that 66% of UK adults are either overweight or obese but, based on our research, it is more likely to be at least 75%."

He said health professionals needed to adopt another measuring technique - Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis - to work out how fat people actually are. This involves attaching electrodes to various parts of the body and circulating a small electrical signal.

The Mayo Clinic studied 2,127 men and women who had a normal BMI between 18 and 25. It found that one in five had excess body fat.