This is how many South African women are considered “severely obese”

·3 Apr 2016

A new research paper published in the Lancet shows that South African women are among the most severely obese population groups in the world.

The research, which tracked the body mass index in adults from 186 countries between 1975 and 2014, showed that the world was indeed getting fatter, with the average BMI among men and women increasing from 21.7 and 22.1 in 1975 to 24.2 and 24.4 in 2014, respectively.

“If post-2000 trends continue, the probability of meeting the global obesity target is virtually zero,” the researchers said.

“Rather, if these trends continue, by 2025, global obesity prevalence will reach 18% in men and surpass 21% in women; severe obesity will surpass 6% in men and 9% in women. Nonetheless, underweight remains prevalent in the world’s poorest regions, especially in south Asia.”

Alarmingly, the report noted that South African women remained some of the most obese in the world, ranking 9th in 2014, with 3.4 million women considered “severely obese”. This was up from 400,000 South African women in 1975.

South African women account for 2.7% of all severely obese women in the world.

The United States, however, remains the “champion” of obesity, with both men and women accounting for the biggest portion of the severely obese populations.

According to the research, 16.2 million men are considered severely obese (27.8% of the total), while 23.1 million US women are considered the same (18.3%) of the total.

This is followed by China and Mexico for men, and China and Russia, for women.

Notably, China has overtaken the US in terms of the obese population, since 1975, while also maintaining a steady second place in terms of the population that is underweight – showing constrasting sides of nurtitional health in the country.

Indian men and women have retained the top spot as the most underweight populations.