Nearly one in four children aged four to five and almost a third of all 10- to 11-year-olds in England are obese or overweight, according to a study by Britain's Department of Health.
As the government tries to fight Britain's bulging waistlines, figures for 2006-7 showed that 22.9 percent of four- to five-year-olds were above their target weight when they began their school careers.
Thirteen percent were overweight while nine percent were obese. Boys were more than twice as likely to be affected than girls.
At aged 10 and 11, the last year of primary education, more than half (17.5 percent) of the 31.6 percent of children carrying excessive weight were classified as obese.
But while 33.2 of boys were overweight or obese, girls were catching up (30 percent).
The results are based on a study of 900,000 children -- about 80 percent of youngsters in the two age groups.
The figures only cover England as health policy is set and run by the devolved administrations in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
The government aims to reduce the proportion of those overweight and obese back to 2000 levels by 2020 through a combination of health eating and exercise initiatives.
Official health statistics released in January this year showed that 24 percent of people aged 16 or over in England were classed as obese in 2006 -- a nine percent increase from 1993.
Some 16 percent of children aged two to 15 were classed as obese in 2006 -- up from 11 percent in 1995.
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AFP 221239 GMT 02 08
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