World Obesity Day 4 March 2025 – Theme, Importance & History
World Obesity Day has been observed globally on the 4th of March every year from 2020 to counter and end the growing global obesity crisis by promoting applied solutions in a real-world scenario, thus increasing the awareness of overweight and the complications it begets.
On this day, people from various international and local organisations all over the world unite to raise awareness about the growing obesity crisis and take collaborative action to correct the misconceptions around obesity, acknowledge the risk factors, and implement real-world solutions.
The incidence of obesity continues to surge, bringing the alarming problem to a routine norm. This sad situation must be reversed as with this trend, 270 crore adults worldwide will be overweight or obese by 2025.
The National Family Health Survey India-3 (NFHS-3) and (NFHS-4) reported the obesity epidemic in India. It showed that:
In 2005-06, 13% of women and nine percent of men of the age group of 15-49 years were overweight or obese, according to NFHS-3
In 2015-16, 21% of women and 19% were overweight or obese (BMI 25.0 kg/m2), according to NFHS-4 data.
BMI of a person is measured by dividing body weight in kilograms by the square of his height in meters (kg/m2). Overweight is defined by World Health Organization (WHO) as having a BMI more than or equal to 25 kg/m2, and obesity as having a BMI more than or equal to 30.
