Humanity could stand to lose a few pounds.
If the entire human population stepped on a scale, the weight would be 316 million tons, or 632 billion pounds, a new study finds.
The overweight people
in the world carry a total of 16 million tons of extra weight — that's the equivalent of 242 million normal-weight people. Obese people carry 3.8 million tons of extra weight, the equivalent of 56 million normal-weight people.
"Everyone accepts that population growth threatens global environmental sustainability — our study shows that population fatness is also a major threat," said study researcher Ian Roberts, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
