According to 2017-18 Australian Health Policy Collaboration data there are nearly 94 per cent of people in West Tamworth that are overweight or obese.

However, figures in New England are also high with the Moree Plains Shire topping the list at 81.2 per cent of people classified as overweight or obese.

The NSW State average is 65.9.

Body-Mass Indexing was used to determine the results with a BMI of 25 indicating someone is considered overweight and anyone with a BMI of 30 or more considered obese.

A normal BMI is 18.5.

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None of the five local government areas in the region fared much better with Glen Innes Severn the second highest at 77.9 and Inverell just a tenth of a per cent lower at 77.8.

Tenterfield has a regional low, but still nearly three quarters of the adult population are overweight with the figures showing 72.9 per cent.

The Armidale Regional Council area data is not listed, but switching to population health mapping in the data shows Armidale on the lower end of the spectrum, but also hovering around 73 per cent.

Sandwiched between Moree and Inverell, the Gwydir council area also rated in the mid 70s for overweight percentage rates.

However, despite obesity rates above the state average, the New England Region has a diabetes rate that falls in line, or below the state average, but it is still an alarming sign for medical workers trying to battle an influx of Type 2 diabetes cases.

Being overweight or obese increases a person's risk for developing type 2 diabetes. Also, weight gain in people with type 2 diabetes makes blood sugar levels even harder to control.

According to data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, few people that have a diabetes diagnosis are able to control their weight to help manage their symptoms.

Just 13 per cent of adults living with diabetes reported having a BMI lower than 25.

The risks are even higher for men with just 9 per cent reporting they were able to get to a target weight.

With Diabetes Australia indicating there could be as many as 500,000 undiagnosed cases of diabetes Australia-wide, obesity was a worrying statistic.

"At this stage what we are seeing is kids being diagnosed in their 20s and 30s. When I grew up in that area your 50s was young to be diagnosed. These people have passed the healthiest years of their life and will spend the majority on medications and in poor health," exercise physiologist Ray Kelly said.

"What that means is seeing cardiologists and kidney experts, poorer mobility and mental health [and] it's a determining factor for dementia.

"People think that type 2 diabetes is bad now. It's nothing. We will have a tsunami of mental health issues if we don't get onto it."

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