India, a nation as soon as haunted by famine, now finds itself within the grip of a special disaster — an epidemic of abundance.
A 2025 research in The Lancet warned that inside the subsequent 25 years, practically 450 million Indians — over 21 crore males and 23 crore ladies — shall be chubby or overweight. That’s virtually a 3rd of the nation’s projected inhabitants. Extra worrying nonetheless, the steepest rise is amongst 15–24-year-olds, with India overtaking america and China in absolute numbers.
Whereas the world is experiencing an weight problems disaster, India’s battle is formed by a posh tangle of historical past, biology, tradition, and concrete way of life shifts, making it one of the pressing public well being issues of the twenty first century.
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Why BMI doesn’t inform the complete story
The Physique Mass Index (BMI), lengthy used as a world yardstick for weight problems, has critical blind spots when utilized to South Asians.
“BMI is a blunt device. It was designed utilizing European populations and doesn’t account for fats distribution or ethnicity-based variations,” defined Dr Ankit Potdar, guide bariatric surgeon at Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, Mumbai.
In keeping with him, Indians are inclined to retailer extra fats, particularly across the stomach, even at decrease BMIs. An Indian with a BMI of 23 can carry the identical metabolic threat as a Caucasian with a BMI of 28–30.
“When measured with physique fats share or waist circumference, Indians typically rank larger in obesity-related dangers, even when their BMI seems regular,” Dr Potdar stated.
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The BMI (Physique Mass Index), lengthy used as an ordinary measure of weight problems, has critical blind spots when utilized to South Asians. (file)
The World Well being Group (WHO) has acknowledged this discrepancy, adjusting the BMI cut-offs for Asians. For Indians:
- Chubby: BMI > 23
- Overweight: BMI > 25
This recalibration is greater than educational. Dr Kedar Patil, a bariatric surgeon at Ruby Corridor Clinic in Pune, identified, “Due to the elevated threat of heart problems and diabetes, the WHO lowered the thresholds. A BMI of 23 is already a purple flag for Indians.”
A colonial hangover in our DNA?
India’s tryst with weight problems might have deeper roots. Not in quick meals or sedentary jobs, however in centuries of hunger and famine.
Between the 18th and twentieth centuries, India endured a number of catastrophic famines below British colonial rule, from the Nice Bengal Famine of 1770 to the devastating Bengal Famine of 1943. Whereas environmental situations performed a job, historians agree that colonial insurance policies, together with pressured grain exports, deepened the disaster.
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Fashionable science suggests these episodes of hunger might have left a organic legacy.
“There’s rising scientific curiosity on this connection,” stated Dr Potdar, including, “The ‘thrifty phenotype speculation’ proposes that generations uncovered to famine tailored by storing fats extra effectively, an evolutionary survival mechanism.”
(Supply: Wikimedia Commons)
This adaptation was as soon as helpful. However in an period of urbanisation and calorie-dense meals, it’s change into dangerous.
“We at the moment are biologically primed to retailer fats shortly, burn fewer energy at relaxation, and resist weight reduction,” Dr Potdar stated. “That’s why we see larger charges of diabetes and coronary heart illness, even in lean-looking Indians.”
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This concept is supported by comparable findings in different famine-affected populations, like Dutch and Chinese language survivors, whose descendants additionally present larger threat of weight problems and diabetes.
Males, ladies, and the metabolic gender hole
On the heart of the Indian weight problems disaster lies a well-known and infrequently joked-about picture: the pot stomach.
On the coronary heart of India’s weight problems disaster lies the pot stomach — medically, stomach weight problems, the place visceral fats builds up round inner organs like liver and pancreas, disrupting insulin and sugar regulation.
“Indian males are inclined to deposit extra visceral fats, which sharply raises the danger of coronary heart illness, fatty liver, and insulin resistance, even when their general weight appears regular” stated Dr Patil.
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On the heart of the Indian weight problems disaster lies a well-known and infrequently joked-about picture: the pot stomach. (Picture: Canva)
Girls face completely different however equally critical dangers. “Indian ladies naturally have a better physique fats share (18–28 per cent) and have a tendency to retailer it within the hips and thighs,” stated Dr Potdar. “This may contribute to PCOS, fertility points, and metabolic syndrome.”
“Each Indian women and men are extra metabolically overweight than their Western counterparts,” Dr Patil defined. “Even individuals who seem lean might have unhealthy fats saved in and round organs.”
Can we battle biology? Or ought to we work with it?
Given these predispositions, is weight reduction a futile battle? Specialists don’t agree, however the technique issues.
“When Indians shed extra pounds too shortly, the physique triggers a famine response: metabolism slows, starvation hormones spike, and fats will get saved much more stubbornly. This isn’t a willpower concern. It’s biology defending in opposition to hunger,” stated Dr Potdar.
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Biology dictates actuality. Given our genetic predispositions, is weight reduction a futile battle? The specialists don’t agree, however the method issues. (Supply: Wikimedia Commons)
Slightly than crash diets or excessive objectives, each docs suggest a sustainable, biology-aware method:
- Excessive-protein, low-GI diets to help fats loss whereas sustaining muscle.
- Power coaching and HIIT may help counteract a slowed metabolism.
- Behavioural remedy to deal with emotional consuming and long-term habits.
- Common metabolic monitoring, not simply scale-watching.
For these with morbid weight problems or uncontrolled metabolic illness, bariatric surgical procedure will be transformative. “It could reset starvation alerts and ship sustained 30–50 kg weight reduction, whereas drastically decreasing diabetes, stroke, and coronary heart illness threat,” stated Dr Patil.
That is greater than willpower
India’s weight problems epidemic is not only a matter of overeating or under-exercising. It’s a deeply systemic concern formed by colonial trauma, organic adaptation, fast modernisation, and socio-economic transition. The usual instruments used to measure and handle weight problems — like BMI — typically fail to seize the distinctive dangers Indians face.
To deal with this disaster, India wants a multi-pronged technique: public well being insurance policies tailor-made to ethnic threat profiles, higher diagnostic instruments past BMI, culturally related weight-reduction plan and health packages, and above all, an empathetic method that doesn’t blame people, however understands the roots of their biology.
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For thousands and thousands of Indians, the trail ahead isn’t about conforming to aesthetic beliefs, however reclaiming metabolic well being in a manner that works with — not in opposition to — our evolutionary design.
“Let’s cease blaming our bodies and begin understanding them,” Dr Potdar stated. “For Indians, the battle in opposition to weight problems is historic, metabolic, and deeply embedded in our genes.”
