The national survey was done by A C Nielsen, a market research consultancy company, conducted across 11 Indian cities.
Almost half of the Kochi population was overweight and 46 per cent of the people in the city were above their ideal weight, 13 per cent were obese and 7 per cent morbidly obese.
The cities surveyed were Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Delhi, Ludhiana, Jaipur, Mumbai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Nagpur.
The results of the survey were presented by Dr R Padmakumar, Medical Director of Sunrise Group of Hospitals and Dr O V Sudheer, Consultant surgeon at Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences.
Padmakumar said the most dangerous aspect highlighted by the survey was that in Kochi 80 per cent of those above their ideal body weight suffer from at least one health problem like diabetes, high BP, increased cholestrol, sleep disorders, infertility and cancer.
Seventeen per cent of the obese in the city have not done anything to find a solution to their problem, he said.
According to Sudheer, the problem was highest in Kochi probably because it consists mainly of urban areas unlike other cities where there is considerable rural population too.