'8 in 10 men, 7 in 10 women to be overweight by 2020'

London, February 17 (ANI): Researchers are ringing the warning bells against adult obesity after a study predicted that eight out of ten men and almost seven in ten women will be overweight by 2020.

Principal investigator Professor Klim McPherson, of the University of Oxford, observed adult obesity is expected to rise sharply in England.

"Unlike the recent report on child obesity, which showed some indications of a plateauing or at least a significant reduction in the rate of obesity, the future projections for adults are less optimistic," Times Online quoted the study as saying.

The report suggested that nearly 41 per cent of men aged 20 to 65 and 36 per cent of women will be obese by 2020.

The possibility of higher incidence of diabetes, strokes and heart disease was also not ruled out.

Professor McPherson said: "These trends demonstrate that the cautiously optimistic picture we presented in November 2009 for a levelling off of future obesity rates among children is not mirrored in adults.

"There are already more men who are obese than who are of a healthy weight and by the end of the decade obese men and women could out-number those who are overweight." (ANI)