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About 28.6% of Indian adults aged 20 and over live with obesity, going by the largest national health survey that measured people directly. That figure comes from ICMR-INDIAB, which weighed and measured 113,043 adults across 31 states and union territories between 2008 and 2020. It uses the Asian cut-off of a BMI of 25 or more, which Indian doctors use, rather than the international line of 30. Measured by waist size instead, 39.5% of adults carry abdominal obesity. Both rates are higher in cities than in villages.
Among women aged 15–49, the NFHS-5 survey of 2019–21 found that 24% were overweight or obese, nearly double the 2006 figure. Punjab is highest at 41% and Meghalaya lowest at 11%. By headcount, India has the world's second-largest number of adults living with overweight or obesity, after China.
What is the obesity rate in India today?
The best national figure comes from ICMR-INDIAB, a survey run by the Indian Council of Medical Research with the Madras Diabetes Research Foundation. Field teams visited homes in every major state, measured height, weight and waist, and drew blood. Ranjit Mohan Anjana and her colleagues published the combined findings in 2023.
Generalised obesity, meaning a BMI of 25 or more, came out at 28.6% of adults aged 20 and over. Abdominal obesity, measured with a tape at the waist, was higher at 39.5%. In the same survey 11.4% of adults had diabetes, 15.3% had prediabetes and 35.5% had high blood pressure.
Every one of those conditions except prediabetes was more common in urban areas than rural ones. The survey ran in phases over twelve years, so the figures for the earliest states are already several years old.
Sources: [1]
Why does India count obesity from a BMI of 25?
Most countries call a BMI of 30 obese and 25 overweight. In 2004 a WHO expert group reviewed the evidence from Asia. Many Asian adults, it found, already had high risk of diabetes and heart disease below a BMI of 25. The point where risk rose sat anywhere between 22 and 25 in different Asian groups.
The WHO kept the international lines but suggested extra action points for Asian countries. A 2009 Indian consensus led by Anoop Misra, with physicians and diabetologists from across the country, then set the national adult cut-offs: overweight from a BMI of 23, obesity from 25. For the waist, the line is 90 cm for men and 80 cm for women.
So when you read that India's obesity rate is about 29% and America's is about 40%, the two numbers are measuring against different lines. Indian bodies tend to carry more fat, and more of it around the organs, at the same weight, so the Indian line sits lower.
How fast has obesity risen in India?
The clearest trend line comes from the National Family Health Surveys, which have weighed women in every state for two decades. A team led by Rath at the Public Health Foundation of India compared the 2006 and 2021 rounds for women aged 15–49. Obesity, using a BMI of 25 or more, stood at 12.3% of women in 2006 and had reached 23.6% by 2021.
It rose in every state they studied, and in both years it was most common among better-off women. Over those fifteen years the gap between rich and poor narrowed in wealthier states and widened in poorer ones. The rise is no longer confined to the well-off.
An analysis by Jindal and colleagues across three NFHS rounds found the same shift in the whole population. Stunting and underweight have been falling while overweight keeps climbing, so many Indian families now carry both problems under one roof.
Which state has the highest obesity in India?
Among women, Punjab. Chakrabarty and Let analysed 623,656 women in NFHS-5. Nationally 24% were overweight or obese, against 41% in Punjab and 11% in Meghalaya, the lowest. The hotspots, where high-prevalence districts clustered together, were in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Telangana in the south. In the north they were Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana and Delhi.
The first phase of ICMR-INDIAB had measured men and women together in four regions. Generalised obesity was 31.3% in Chandigarh, 24.6% in Tamil Nadu, 16.6% in Maharashtra and 11.8% in Jharkhand. Urban residents had more of it than rural residents in all four.
Waist-to-hip ratio paints a slightly different map. A 2026 study of 707 districts by John and colleagues found clusters of high abdominal obesity in northern and eastern India as well, including areas that look unremarkable on BMI.
How does obesity in India compare with the US?
On the American definition, obesity in the US is far more common. The national examination survey for August 2021 to August 2023 measured 40.3% of American adults at a BMI of 30 or more, with 9.4% at 40 or more. India's survey figure of 28.6% uses the lower Asian line of 25.
The Global Burden of Disease team estimated adults aged 25 and older with overweight or obesity in 204 countries for 2021. China came first with 402 million. India came second with 180 million, just ahead of the US with 172 million. So India ranks second in the world by number, and well down the list by percentage.
The NCD Risk Factor Collaboration pooled measured data from 222 million participants worldwide. India, it found, still has a lot of thinness alongside rising obesity, which researchers call the double burden.
Why does belly fat matter more in India?
BMI is weight divided by height squared, so it says nothing about where the fat sits. NFHS-5 was the first round to measure waist size. Chaudhary and Sharma, at IIHMR University in Jaipur, used those tape readings to map abdominal obesity across the country.
They found it in 40% of women and 12% of men. Among women aged 30–49, five or six in every ten had it. Waist-to-hip ratio gives larger figures still: the 2026 district study put it at 56.6% of women and 48.9% of men, using WHO cut-offs. The two methods catch different people, which is why the men's numbers differ so much.
A small American study shows how this works. Raji and colleagues compared 12 healthy Asian Indians with 12 white Americans of the same age and BMI. The Indian group carried more visceral fat, the deep fat around the organs, and their bodies handled sugar and insulin far less well.
That is why the Indian consensus gave every adult a waist line as well as a BMI line. A man with a 92 cm waist is over it even if his BMI reads normal.
What do these numbers mean for your own health?
In ICMR-INDIAB, more than one adult in three had high blood pressure and more than one in ten had diabetes. Many of them did not know it. If your BMI or waist puts you in the obese group, those are the two conditions most worth checking for first.
Doctors often quote 5–10% of body weight as the loss that starts to matter, and the Look AHEAD study shows why. It followed 5,145 adults with type 2 diabetes for a year. Those who lost 5–10% of their weight were 3.5 times as likely to cut HbA1c by half a point, with better blood pressure, triglycerides and HDL too.
People in the same study who lost 10–15% did better again on most markers. What the weight is made of matters too. A review by Cava and colleagues found that diet-only weight loss takes some muscle with it, while adequate protein and resistance exercise help keep it.
So a good plan for someone above the Indian lines starts from a home blood test and a doctor's review. It aims for a loss of up to 20% of body weight, and uses protein and strength work so the muscle stays while the fat goes.
How can you tell where you stand?
You can get two useful numbers at home. Work out your BMI and read it against the Indian lines: 23 for overweight and 25 for obesity. Then put a tape round your waist at the navel, breathing out normally, and compare it with 90 cm for men or 80 cm for women.
If either is over the line, a fasting blood test is a sensible next step. HbA1c and fasting sugar show how your body handles glucose, a lipid profile shows triglycerides and HDL, and a liver panel can hint at fat in the liver. A doctor can tell you which of those you need.
Note the numbers with the date. If they point to a doctor-led plan, these same readings become its baseline: the waist each month and the blood test after a few months show whether fat is coming off while muscle stays.