One reason that Australia is having such a hard time addressing its growing obesity problem is that people are unaware of how they are impacted.  A new study says a quarter of overweight Aussies think they're within the healthy range of weight for their size.

But it's not true.  A new study published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health asked 1,599 adults across the weight ranges whether they believed they were a normal weight.  A little more than one in four - 26.8 percent - of overweight and obese patients with a body mass index (BMI) of 25 to 29 did not consider themselves overweight.   There was a gender divide as women were more likely to recognize their overweight status than were men.  Big shocker, women are more observant.

Another issue is that doctors are only marginally better at recognizing the weight of their patients.  When it came to overweight patients, GPs were only able to identify the problem 60 percent of the time.  When it came to obese patients - those with a BMI of 30 or greater - got it right 60 percent of the time, incorrectly categorized 37 percent as overweight, and considered 3 percent to be within the healthy range.

In 1995, 56.3 percent of Aussies were overweight or obese.  A decade later, that swelled to 63.4 percent, and about one in four Australian kids are overweight.