The worldwide problem of obesity is beginning to surface in the world's most populous country China with the fast growing economy meaning that the richer Chinese are eating to much and putting on weight. The obesity problem is especially prevalent in major cities and with the young Chinese people. The weight loss industry in China is booming and has been very profitable for investors over the last few years.

The weight loss industry was worth one and a quarter billion dollars in 2004 and market analysts put a forecast of over seven billion dollars by 2010. The figures also show that the average gross profit of weight loss products was nearly 50% last year and this has encouraged over two thousand companies to invest in the Chinese weight loss industy.

The Chinese government are worried about the obesity problem too and a government survey in 2005 showed that 1 out of 5 adults is overweight and 1 in 10 is obese. China has such a big population that this means that there could be 200 million overweight people and 90 million people in the nation. In cities the problem is compounded and the rise in obesity levels is almost up 100% from a survey done 13 years ago. In Beijing it is estimated that as many as half of all the people who live there are overweight.

In China the definitions of obesity differ slightly from the western standards and WHO standards of obesity. China does use a body mass index (BMI) factor to work out the height/weight ratio however as Asians have different builds to western people they use a figure of 24 as opposed to 25 for being overweight and they use a figure of 28 and not 30 to determine obesity.

The Chinese have gone from being one of the worlds most healthy populations to one that the the WHO is increasingly worried about. The richer Chinese people are at present the biggest sufferers of obesity, but should trends continue unabated the poorer people will start to get obese and this will cause bigger and more serious obesity problems.