Malaysians complain of weight gain during lockdown

Malaysians are complaining about their weight gain during coronavirus lockdown in the country starting in mid-March, the Kuala Lumpur based The Star reported on Monday (June 22).

The newspaper said the development "was not really a surprise" considering that many have become homebound and less active physically.

"Some even chose not to share their most recent photographs on their social media accounts to avoid receiving criticism from their friends," the report said.

Even before the pandemic, obesity was already a health concern in Malaysia. According to the World Population Review 2019, Malaysia has the highest prevalence of obesity among adults in South-East Asia at 15.6 percent.

The National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS) 2019 findings, meanwhile, showed that 50.1 percent of adults in Malaysia were either overweight or obese - 30.4 percent were overweight and 19.7 percent obese.

Dhaka/AI