A report released by Roy Morgan showed that 63 per cent of New Zealanders are obese. The New Zealand State of the Nation Report 3 covers a decade and 120,000 interviews.

As of September 2011, only 35 per cent of New Zealanders had a healthy Body Mass Index, down from 38 per cent in 2009.

Of the 63 per cent, 28 per cent were classified as obese and 35 per cent were overweight. The obese grew by 3 per cent while the overweight went down by 1 per cent.

Despite the trend toward wider waistlines and larger girths, 60 per cent of the country's population said they want to lose weight and 38 per cent said they are constantly monitoring their weight. But only 30 per cent considered switching to a low-fat diet and only 19 per cent said they counted the number of calories they ate.

"Our rising weight is likely an indication of our challenging lifestyles. These findings raise many questions such as, 'Is our increasing weight simply a reflection of our aging population?' 'Can it be explained by a more sedentary lifestyle or more fast food?' 'Is it a male problem or a female problem?' Or, 'Is it different by geographical location?'" asked Pip Elliott, client services director of Roy Morgan Research.

The research firm pointed out that for the same period, 62 per cent of Australians also had weight problems and 64 per cent of them want to shed their extra pounds.

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