In a landmark decision, the Union Health ministry on Tuesday released the first India-specific guidelines for prevention and management of obesity and metabolic syndrome.

As per the new standards released by the Ministry, a person with a body mass index of 23 kg/m2 will be considered overweight and below that as one with normal BMI - unlike the cut-off limit of 25 kg/m2 earlier. Now, those with BMI of 25 kg/m2 will be clinically termed obese (as opposed to 30 kg/m2 at the international level) and those with BMI of 32.5 kg/m2 will require bariatric surgery to eliminate excess.

The guidelines were released jointly by the health ministry, the Diabetes Foundation of India, the All-India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS), Indian Council of Medical Research, the National Institute of Nutrition and 20 other health organisations.

Releasing the guidelines, Dr Anoop Misra, director and head, department of diabetes and metabolic diseases, Fortis Hospitals, New Delhi and Noida said, “Indians have a very different body, genetic and metabolic composition from westerners. Therefore, the parameters for obesity also have to be very different. This will bring more people under the overweight and obesity bracket. The revised guidelines would benefit 6 to 8 crore people. That in turn would lead to substantial prevention of diabetes and heart disease.”

The new guidelines released by the Health Ministry would soon be compiled and published by the Indian Council of Medical Research.

According to an estimate, those suffering from diabetes in the country would increase by 170% in the next 20 years. At present, India has the largets number of diabetes people in the world.