Women in the UK are the fatest in Europe, according to the findings of three major global studies on obesity.

Researchers compared statistics on three major health indicators – Body Mass Index (BMI), choleserol and blood pressure over the past 28 years.

While British females are now the most obese in Europe, American woman are even fatter.

According to the World Health Organisation, a BMI of 18.5 to 24.9 is healthy; 25 to 29.9 is overweight and 30+ is clinically obese.

The average BMI, for a British woman, which measures height and weight, was 26.9 in 2008 – which is up from 24.2 in 1980.

Other high scoring countries were Russia (27.2), Israel 27.3 and Malta (27),

For British men, the average BMI was 27.4 – the same as in Cyprus and Luxembourg. This is up from 24.7 in 1980. They also were found to have the the joint fourth highest fat levels, behind Ireland in top place, according to the report published in The Lancet.