Canberra, June 20 (Reuters): Australia is on track to become the fattest nation, although experts questioned today whether it had overtaken the US and small Pacific countries for the unenviable title.

Around 4 million Australian adults, or 26 per cent of the population, were obese, eclipsing the 25 per cent rate in the US, a study by the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute released in Melbourne said.

“If we ran a fat Olympics we’d be gold medal winners as the fattest people on earth at the moment,” institute preventative cardiology head Prof. Simon Stewart told the Age newspaper. The report, Australia’s Future Fat Bomb, to be presented to a government inquiry into the nation’s obesity problem, said 70 per cent of men and 60 per cent of women aged 45 to 65 were technically overweight or obese.