Obesity factor: Scientists calculate the weight of the world

June 18, 2012

LONDON, June 18 — Curious how much collective extra weight the world is carrying due to the global obesity problem? In data published yesterday, scientists have calculated it to be 3.9 million tons, or 3.5 million metric tons.

According to researchers, all that extra bulk adds up, and could have “the same implications for world food energy demands as an extra half a billion people living on the earth.”

Also in fresh rankings of the world’s heaviest nations, the US once again tops the list as the most obese country, followed by Kuwait and Croatia. The research is detailed online in journal BMC Public Health.

To reach their national estimates, researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine used World Health Organisation data from 2005. According to the BBC, the scientists worked out that the average global body weight was 62kg but there were large regional differences.

In North America, the average was 80.7kg, while in Asia it was 57.7kg. That means that while Asia accounts for 61 per cent of the global population, according to the BBC, it only accounts for some 13 per cent of the weight of the world due to obesity.

Heaviest 10 (for nations with more than 100,000 people):
1. United States
2. Kuwait

3. Croatia

4. Qatar

5. Egypt
6. United Arab Emirates

7. Trinidad and Tobago

8. Argentina
9. Greece

10. Bahrain

Lightest 10:
1. North Korea

2. Cambodia
3. Burundi

4. Nepal

5. Democ. Rep. of the Congo
6. Bangladesh
7. Sri Lanka

8. Ethiopia

9. Vietnam

10. Eritrea

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) also recently ranked the US as having the most overweight and obese adults, while Mexico, Australia, and Canada also were cited as having populations exceeding 60 per cent overweight. Look to Japan, Korea, India, Indonesia and China for thinner adults (1-4 per cent obese). — AFP/Relaxnews