Claims that childhood obesity has reached epidemic proportions were over-hyped, British researchers claimed today.
The Social Issues Research Council said that it was no more than "unsupported speculation" to suggest there had been a huge increase in child weights.
The independent research group, funded by British government bodies and food companies, said average weights have only risen slightly.
A team from the Oxford-based centre analysed data from the 2003 Health Survey for England.
The survey showed that Body Mass Index (BMI) trends had been broadly static for girls and boys aged under 16 from 1995 to 2003, the report found.
An average 15-year-old boy weighed 9st 5lbs in 2003, compared with 9st 2lbs nine years earlier.
The average weight for a 15-year-old girl was just under 9st 3lbs, nearly a pound higher than in 1995.
The SIRC questioned the method how childhood obesity was estimated in the survey, which was published by the Department of Health in December. The UK method used in the survey classed youngsters as obese in relation to weight range for their age, whereas international measures took into account both weight and height.
Rates in obesity increased to 15.5 per cent of children under the UK system, but just 6.75 per cent under the international method.
Researchers could also find no significant change in the number of children with chronic illnesses, including type II diabetes. Their findings were in stark contrast to recent research on the rates of obesity among children which suggested it had tripled in 20 years.
It had been estimated that around one in 10 six-year-olds were obese, rising to 17 per cent of 15-year-olds. The SIRC report states: "The absence of any evident deterioration in the health status of children supports the view that children are not becoming fatter as fast as widely believed.
"We can conclude from these figures that there have been no significant changes in the average weights of children over nearly a decade. "This can be taken as evidence that there has been no 'epidemic' of weight gain, since an epidemic would certainly have affected average weights."
It added that the "hyping" of child obesity was diverting attention from the higher rates of overweight people aged in their 50s and 60s.