Almost a third of all children and adults around the world are overweight, a study has found.
Despite not being classified as obese, researchers said many overweight people are still at risk of potentially fatal diseases.
Out of the four million deaths caused by excess body weight in 2015, 40 per cent were cases where the person was not considered obese and had a BMI below the obesity threshold.
The authors of the findings, which were reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, highlighted a "growing and disturbing global health crisis".
Dr Christopher Murray, one of the researchers from the University of Washington, said: "People who shrug off weight gain do so at their own risk - risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer and other life-threatening conditions.
"Those half-serious new year's resolutions to lose weight should become year-round commitments to lose weight and prevent future weight gain."
The findings, from 195 countries and territories around the world, are partly based on data from the Global Burden of Disease study which examined the health impact of more than 300 diseases and types of injury.
In 2015, about 2.2 billion children and adults worldwide – 30 per cent of the global population - were overweight, said the researchers.
The total included almost 108 million children and more than 600 million adults with a BMI above 30, meaning they were obese.
Egypt had the largest proportion of obese adults, making up 35 per cent of the population.
The US had the highest rate of obesity among children and young people, 13 per cent of whom fell into this category. It also had the largest number of obese adults, 79.4 million, in 2015.
Additional reporting by Press Association.
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