More than 640 million people globally now weigh in as obese and the world has more overweight than underweight people, according to an analysis of global trends in body mass index (BMI). A startling increase in rates of obesity in the past 40 years means the number of people with a BMI of more than 30 has risen from 105 million in 1975 to 641 million in 2014, the study found. A BMI score over 25 is overweight, over 30 is obese and over 40 is morbidly obese.

The research warned of a looming crisis of “severe obesity” and disease brought on by high-fat, high-sugar diets causing blood pressure and cholesterol to rise. “There will be health consequences of magnitudes that we do not know,” author Majid Ezzati of Imperial College London told AFP. Among men globally, obesity tripled from 3.2 percent of the population in 1975 to 10.8 percent in 2014 (some 266 million), and among women from 6.4 percent to 14.9 percent (375 million), said the survey — 12.9 percent combined.