A recent Lancet study found that an alarming 70% of India’s urban population is fat or overweight, putting the country in the midst of an obesity epidemic. Addressing an event on the eve of World Obesity Day on Sunday, Dr. Amit Garg, a leading bariatric and metabolic surgeon at a Mohali-based hospital, said that according to a Lancet report, India is just behind the United States and China in the top ten countries with the biggest number of fat people.
Approximately 30 million adults in India are either overweight or obese. Diabetes affects 62 million Indians and is characterized by excess body fat, abdominal fullness, and fat accumulation in unusual areas like the liver and muscles. Obesity is a growing problem in India, and so are weight-loss surgeries. In 2019, India performed around 20,000 weight-loss operations, a significant increase from 800 only a decade ago. To make this procedure more affordable, the Indian government now covers the expenses of weight-loss surgeries for its 3 million government employees.
