Australians are becoming obese at an alarming rate, according to a report that shows seven in 10 men are too fat.
Health experts are horrified, warning that gains to life expectancy could be reversed if drastic action is not taken.
It needs an effort along the lines of the anti-smoking campaign, says Professor Graeme Hankey, co-author of the report which was published in The Lancet medical journal on Thursday.
The 188-country report shows Australia's problem is ballooning out of control.
Overall 63 per cent of adults are overweight, up from 49 per cent in 1980. Five million, one third of the adult population, are obese.
One in four children are overweight.
New Zealand is worse, with 66 per cent of adults overweight.
When grouped together, Australians and New Zealanders are becoming obese at a faster rate than any other region.
"We should be incredibly worried," said Prof Hankey of the University of Western Australia.
Other developed countries are starting to plateau, he said, but not Australia and New Zealand.
"We are getting worse."
Apart from the burden of diabetes, heart disease and stroke, people are buckling under the strain.
"It causes wear and tear on the knees, hips and spine from having to carry the weight around," Prof Hankey said.
"We seem to have nailed tobacco and reversed the trend, but we are not doing very well at managing this."
The Heart Foundation's Dr Robert Grenfell said Australia was going backwards on obesity.
"Overweight and obesity is now one of the leading causes of preventable death and disease in our community. Carrying the extra kilos greatly increases the risk of death from heart disease."
Professor Rob Moodie of the Melbourne School of Population Health blamed junk food and a sedentary lifestyle.
"The environment is geared towards over-consumption because of the way food is marketed and because of a lack of regulation," he said.
"The junk food and processed food industry is enormously powerful. The politicians are absolutely frightened."
It's marketed all over sport and social media, he said.
"The exposure of children to junk food and junk drink advertising needs to be reduced."
A short-term goal should be to reduce the amount of salt, fat and sugar in processed food as well.
"If you do it across the board, it reduces the risk for the whole population.
"We need sensible regulation to make sensible choices much easier than they are at the moment."
Australia and New Zealand are ranked the 30th and 23rd most overweight countries in the world, not far behind the US, which is ranked 20th.
In the US, close to three quarters of men and six in 10 women are overweight or obese.
"In the last three decades, not one country has achieved success in reducing obesity rates, and we expect obesity to rise steadily unless urgent steps are taken," said co-author Christopher Murray of the University of Washington.
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