The obesity epidemic appears to have taken on a global dynamic.

New research suggests the number of overweight people on the planet may now be higher than the number of underweight people.

Scientists with the NCD Risk Factor Collaboration group analyzed global body mass index (BMI) trends between 1975 to 2014.

Using data from almost 17-hundred studies with more than 19.2-million adult participants across 200 countries, they found that over the past four decades, the increase in BMI was equivalent to the world’s population becoming on average 1.5 kilograms heavier each decade.

If the global trends continue, 18 per cent of men and 21 per cent of women will be obese by 2025.

(ABC)