We need to change these numbers fast
The human population is getting too fat for the planet, and Britain is responsible for 3 per cent of the excess flab, according to new research.
The first study to calculate the impact on the environment of growing waistlines has estimated that the adult human population weighs in at 287 million tons, 15 million of which is due to the overweight and 3.5 million due to obesity.
Scientists from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said that tackling population weight is crucial for food security and ecological sustainability.
The study said that over-consumption was not only shortening people's lives but also driving climate change and the destruction of the environment.
Increasing body mass means higher energy requirements, because it takes more energy to move a heavy body. Even at rest a fatter body burns more energy.
Professor Ian Roberts, who led the research, said: 'Everyone accepts that population growth threatens global environmental sustainability - our study shows that population fatness is also a major threat.
'Unless we tackle both population and fatness, our chances are slim.'
The study, The weight of nations: An estimation of adult human biomass, is to be published in the open-access journal BMC Public Health.