Obesity levels have risen 17-fold in some parts of the world over the past two decades, MailOnline can reveal today.
Of the 200 countries that historically track their collective waistlines, only France saw its proportion of obese adults fall between 1990 and 2022.
Bangladesh, Nepal and the African nation of Burkina Faso all recorded jumps of more than 1,000 percent in the same period, and the obesity epidemic is now evident in every corner of the Earth.
Obesity rates have doubled around the world, including in Britain and the United States, according to figures compiled by the World Health Organization.
More than one billion people worldwide are currently considered overweight, with a BMI greater than 30.
American Samoa, according to the WHO’s most recent annual figures, illustrated in graphs and an interactive map, is the fattest nation.
Three-quarters of adults are technically obese on the Polynesian island, a United States territory.
Rates also top 70 percent in South Pacific neighbors Tonga and Naura, which topped the charts when modern records began in 1990.
Broken down, WHO figures show that French and Spanish women are less obese today than in 1990.
The male waistline has expanded in all countries, MailOnline analysis shows.
In 1990, Vietnam, East Timor, Ethiopia and Bangladesh had the lowest obesity levels.
Less than 0.3 percent of people living there were considered fat at the time, the equivalent of up to one in 333.
At the time, the UK adult population was ranked 73rd on the global obesity list, between Bermuda and Chile with an average of 12.4 per cent.
By 2022, Britain has fallen one place to 74th on the list. At that time, however, 28.7 percent of the population was obese, an increase of more than 130 percent.
This figure, however, does not include the millions of adults who are overweight but not fat enough to be considered obese.
In 1990, the United States ranked 21st on the international obesity list between Saudi Arabia and Ukraine, and 18.5 percent of adults reported a BMI level of at least 30.
In 2022, 42.9 percent of American adults were obese, also an increase of more than 130 percent. It moved them up three spots to 18th place.
At the bottom of the table in 2022 were Vietnam (2.1 percent), Timor-Leste (2.3 percent) and Ethiopia (2.4 percent).
Professor Alexander Miras, an obesity treatment expert at Imperial College London, said: “This data is incredibly worrying.
‘What is most worrying is how quickly levels have risen, especially in parts of the world where there is also a lot of poverty. There is a lot of food insecurity in those countries, in addition to, now, obesity.
“It just shows that obesity is not taken seriously.”
Tam Fry, president of the National Obesity Forum, said: “The figures are disastrous.
‘There are now more obese people than undernourished people in Africa, which has surprised many people.
‘This risks deteriorating global health. Obesity is an eminently preventable condition.
‘But it is not just a disease in itself, it triggers many other problems that are even more worrying, such as type two diabetes, heart and kidney disease. Therefore, the price of health will increase.”
Professor Naveed Sattar, an expert in cardiometabolic medicine at the University of Glasgow, said: “Fast food is reaching more and more parts of the world and, with industrialisation, activity levels are declining in parallel.
“The inevitable consequence is an increase in obesity levels in almost every country in the world.”
The most recent statistics released by the United States earlier this month raised hopes that the obesity crisis was the other way around.
Public health officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that 40 percent of adults were obese between 2021 and 2023, up from 42 percent in the previous period.
It marked the first year-over-year decline since the CDC began regularly tracking the metric a decade earlier.
The downward trend follows the meteoric rise of Ozempic and other revolutionary weight-loss drugs, which leading experts believe are ushering in a new era in the war against bulging waistlines due to their powerful effects.
Experts insist it is too early to know if they are playing a role and that other factors could have influenced the slight decline.
Professor Miras, who called the CDC reports “encouraging”, told MailOnline: “People have speculated whether obesity drugs have played a role in this, but it’s just speculation.
“While it is a reasonable assumption, I think it is too early to see its impact.” It’s too early to make that judgment and I’m suspicious.
‘I doubt it because we haven’t been using these medications for a long time. But if this is a real phenomenon, then it is really good news.
‘Covid had a bidirectional relationship with obesity globally. It caused most people to gain weight, so Covid may have exacerbated the situation.
“But, equally, we know that people with obesity were more vulnerable to Covid in terms of mortality and morbidity.”
Professor Sattar added: “The recent slight overall decline may be related to Covid, when weight increased and people quickly tried to reverse it.” So I think we need more data to be sure.
‘The increasing use of anti-obesity drugs, especially in private markets by many people before reaching an obesity-equivalent BMI, may be slowing the rise in obesity in some countries.
“But we definitely need to see the trends in the next three or four years to be sure.”
Mr Fry said: “There is no doubt that drugs like Wegovy and Mounjaro are going to help, but they are only going to help a limited number of people.”
‘My fear is that they are now mainly bought by a group of people who really shouldn’t be taking this medicine at all.
“It’s not a beauty product, it’s a medicine and it’s very powerful.”
In Britain, ministers are considering giving glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists such as Wegovy and Ozempic to unemployed obese people to get them back to work.
Labor Health Secretary Wes Streeting has publicly stated that the range of drugs has “enormous potential”. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has also claimed they will be “very useful” in the war on profits.
But the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has warned against misusing Ozempic and rival drugs because of their powerful side effects.
More than one in ten consumers will experience gastrointestinal side effects, such as vomiting and diarrhea.
In most cases, these are not serious, but sometimes they can lead to severe dehydration that can lead to hospitalization.
Addressing the plans last week, Mr Streeting warned: “These are not cosmetic drugs that should be taken to help achieve a beautiful body image for Instagram… they are not a quick fix to lose a few kilos.”
He urged Brits desperate to lose weight not to buy them online without going through a proper assessment.
Obesity is estimated to cost the NHS around £6.5bn a year as it is the second largest preventable cause of cancer.