While the existing international standards, which were being followed in India till now, considered a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 25 kg per metre square overweight and a BMI of 30 kg per metre square officially obese, now this falls to 23 and 25 respectively.

India is not the first country to come up with guidelines to tackle obesity. Countries like China and Japan already have own, helping them tackle the problem. The ministry has consulted experts from AIIMS, the Indian Council for Medical Research, National Institute of Nutrition and 20 other eminent organisations to formulate guidelines for the Indian population.

The proposal will increase the numbers falling in the category of obese in the country by nearly 15 per cent, said Dr Anoop Misra, Head of the Department of Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases, Fortis Hospital. Obesity currently affects five to 15 per cent of the population, he added.

The diagnostic cut-off for waist circumference for abdominal obesity too has been decreased under the new guidelines. According to international guidelines, abdominal obesity for men is 102 cm and for women 88 cm. It will now be less than 90 cm for men and less than 80 cm for women.

“We have realised that Indians have a different composition of the body and if we lower the BMI guidelines for obesity, it will prevent an additional 15 to 20 per cent (six to eight crores) of the Indian population from turning obese,” said Dr Mishra.

“Intervention can now happen sooner instead of waiting for the BMI to reach 30. People with BMI of 25 kg per metre square and above will be considered for initiating drug therapy,” said Dr Brij Makkar, Diabetologist and obesity specialist at Sri Balaji Action Medical Institute, Paschim Vihar.

“The WHO has left it to the respective governments to take action depending on population-specific problems. Hence the onus lies on us to decide the best for the Indian population. If the options of exercise, drug and surgery are applied at the lower levels of obesity, it will benefit Indians in many ways,” Mishra said.