- More People Are Now Obese Than Underweight, Study Finds. It looked at global BMI patterns from 1975-2014, and found 641 million obese people in 2014, compared to 105 million in 1975. The number of underweight people have fallen. It was estimated that by 2025, 1/5th all adults globally will be obese. http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/piis0140-6736(16)30054-x/abstract 67 comments science