More than 25,000 military personnel diagnosed 'obese'

Questions about how overweight soldiers, sailors and airmen can perform frontline duties were raised today after a freedom of information request revealed thousands of British military personnel had weighed in as obese in the last four years.

Health campaigners said the figures were "staggering" after The Sunday Times reported more than 25,000 military workers fell into the obesity scale on the Body Mass Index and that officers had established an "obesity working group."

The Ministry of Defence refuted the claims and insisted its men and women "must be healthy" and "fit to handle everything in a case of emergency."

An MoD spokesman said: "It is misleading to focus solely on BMI as this does not differentiate between bodyweight that is due to muscle mass and that which is body fat."