The vast majority of Norwegians are overweight or obese, according to figures from the National Institute of Public Health (FHI). The trend has been rising sharply for decades.
“It is no surprise that the proportion of those who are overweight and obese has increased in recent years, this has been a long-standing trend,” chief physician Haakon Meyer at the FHI stated.
Only 23% of men and 42% of women between the ages of 40 and 49 have a body mass index (BMI) of less than 25, which is considered normal weight. The rest are either overweight or obese. The proportion of abdominal obesity, which is calculated on the basis of waist measurements, has also increased sharply since the 1960s, according to the FHI.
People are considered overweight when they have a BMI of 25 or more, which turns into obesity when the BMI exceeds 30.
Sharp increase
“We see that more people are overweight and obese than those who are normal weight,” Meyer added.
At the end of the 1960s, only 5% of Norwegian men in their 40s were obese. For women, the proportion of those with obesity was reduced from 13 to 7% from the 1960s until the end of the 1970s. It started to increase again from 1980.
The number of overweight and obese children has also increased, but the increasing trend seems to have stopped, according to the FHI. For children, different BMI limits are in place.
The proportion of obesity is higher outside the cities than in the cities.
Source: © NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today / #NorwayTodayNews
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