Australians Fatter then Americans?

Unless Americans have gone on a massive weight loss kick in the last few years, I find this hard to believe:

AUSTRALIA has become the fattest nation in the world, with more than 9 million adults now rated as obese or overweight, according to an alarming new report.

The most definitive picture of the national obesity crisis to date has found that Australians now outweigh Americans and face a future "fat bomb" that could cause 123,000 premature deaths over the next two decades.

If the crisis is not averted, obesity experts have warned, health costs could top $6 billion and an extra 700,000 people will be admitted to hospital for heart attacks, strokes and blood clots caused by excess weight.

The latest figures show 4 million Australians — or 26% of the adult population — are now obese compared to an estimated 25% of Americans. A further 5 million Australians are considered overweight.

The report, Australia’s Future ‘Fat Bomb’, from Melbourne’s Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, will be presented at the Federal Government’s inquiry into obesity, which comes to Melbourne today. [The Age]

Having lived for a considerable amount of time in each country I can subjectively say from my own personal experience that I find Australians to be less obese then Americans.  It could be that the 26% of the population in Australia considered overweight are just not obviously overweight as the 25% of people in America.  For example if you go to the supermarket in America how many obese people do you see using motorized carts because they are too big to walk?  When I was living in the US just about everytime you went to the supermarket you saw someone on a cart because they were so obese.  In Australia on the other hand it is a rare site to see someone so obese that they use a motorized cart.

I will say that an obesity crisis is something that Australians should be concerned about because there is definitely plenty of overweight people in the country due to poor eating habbits and little exercise; I just don’t think it is as bad as America yet.