Obesity in Ecuador: rates, causes and where to get help

How common is obesity in Ecuador?

Close to three in ten Ecuadorian adults live with obesity. The latest WHO estimate is 28.9 %, giving Ecuador a rank of 67th among 196 countries ordered from the highest rate down.

In absolute numbers, that is around 4 million adults. That places Ecuador among the 50 countries with the most people living with obesity, even though it is a mid-sized country.

Women and men

Women in Ecuador are more likely than men to live with obesity: 33.9 % against 23.7 %, the WHO figures show. The gap has widened slightly since 1990, from about seven percentage points to ten.

A study of adults in a low-income district in the south of Quito found a similar pattern, with obesity in 38.7 % of women and 22 % of men. More than half of all participants there had a raised waist circumference.

What the national surveys show

Ecuador measures weight in its National Health and Nutrition Survey (ENSANUT), carried out by the national statistics institute INEC. Its figures include overweight as well as obesity.

The previous survey round found that 63 % of adults, 26 % of teenagers and 30 % of school-age children were overweight or obese. In the latest round, 35.4 % of children aged 5 to 11 carried excess weight: 36.9 % in towns and 32.6 % in the countryside.

National surveys measure people directly but use their own age groups and cut-offs, so they cannot be compared one to one with WHO modelled estimates. Both show that excess weight touches most Ecuadorian families.

Children and teenagers

Among Ecuadorians aged 5 to 19, about 12.9 % live with obesity, well above the world average of 8.2 %. Unusually, boys (15.0 %) are more affected than girls (10.7 %).

Younger children show a mixed picture. A national survey of children under five found 4.9 % overweight, while 17.1 % were stunted or wasted; Indigenous children had the highest rates of undernutrition. Our page on obesity in children explains what families can do.

How obesity in Ecuador has changed since 1990

Adult obesity in Ecuador has tripled since 1990, from 9.7 % to 28.9 % today. For three decades in a row, each ten-year period added more than the one before.

Men's obesity quadrupled, from 5.9 % to 23.7 %. Among women it rose from 13.2 % to 33.9 %. For children and teenagers, the share more than tripled, from 3.6 % to 12.9 %.

This rise happened while Ecuador was still working to reduce child stunting. Researchers describe a triple burden: undernutrition, overweight and shortages of vitamins and minerals, shown for example by anaemia, all within the same population.

For families, this can mean a parent with obesity and a child who is too short for their age. Both point to diets that fill the stomach but lack nutrients.

The same national data show that undernutrition in young children is most common among Indigenous children. Overweight, by contrast, was highest among White children aged one and a half to four and a half years.

Why is obesity rising in Ecuador?

Ecuador's obesity rise is driven above all by changes in what people eat: more refined starch, oil, sweet drinks and ultra-processed products, and too few vegetables, fruit and legumes. Busy urban lives and less physical work add to this. Our page on the causes of obesity places these drivers in context.

Rice, oil and too few vegetables

The national nutrition survey found that the typical Ecuadorian diet contains large amounts of rice, palm oil and dairy. It contains little fruit, vegetables and legumes.

As a result, intake of refined carbohydrate and saturated fat is above international recommendations. The survey also recorded a high intake of sugary drinks across the population.

Soft drinks from an early age

Sugary drinks are a big part of the picture. In the same survey, 82 % of teenagers said they drank carbonated soft drinks regularly.

A study of household purchases found that lower-income families spent more on soft drinks and got more calories from them than better-off households. Another survey across the Coast, Sierra and Amazon regions found that teenagers remained the biggest consumers.

Ultra-processed food everywhere

Writing in The Lancet Regional Health – Americas, researchers working on Ecuador describe ultra-processed food as dominating shops and online advertising. It is also still widely sold in and around schools.

Researchers have adapted a short questionnaire to measure how much ultra-processed food people eat. They found that just 27 commonly eaten groups of products account for about 90 % of the energy Ecuadorians get from ultra-processed food.

That is useful for clinics and families alike. Cutting back on a handful of familiar products can make a real difference to daily intake.

When healthier options are harder to find or cost more, warning labels alone cannot change habits, the Lancet Regional Health authors argue. Our page on the food environment explains how price and availability shape choices.

Less movement in daily life

Physical activity is low for many groups. Among active older adults in southern Ecuador, a third still had low activity levels, and obesity was more common among those who moved little.

Young children move less than advised too. In a pilot study in Quito kindergartens, only about one child in eight met all WHO recommendations for activity, screen time and sleep.

Older Ecuadorians are affected too. In a study of 400 active older adults in the south of the country, almost six in ten had a nutrition problem by BMI, most often overweight.

Poverty and inequality

Excess weight in Ecuador affects poorer communities heavily. In the low-income district of southern Quito, one adult in three had obesity, and diets were low in fruit and vegetables and high in salt and sugar.

Cheap, filling food is often the most energy-dense. That makes eating well harder for families with little money or time.

How does obesity affect health in Ecuador?

Obesity in Ecuador goes hand in hand with high blood pressure, raised blood sugar and high cholesterol. In the southern Quito study, 26.9 % of adults had hypertension, 7.9 % had high blood sugar and more than half had high cholesterol.

Raised blood sugar became much more common with age, reaching 22 % among women over 70. Many of these conditions develop without symptoms, so regular checks matter.

At national level, chronic diseases associated with overweight, such as diabetes, hypertension and heart disease, are linked to about one death in four, according to national figures cited by Ecuadorian researchers. Our page on the health risks of obesity explains how excess weight affects the body.

What is Ecuador doing to tackle obesity?

Ecuador combines a front-of-pack traffic-light label, a tax on sugary drinks, national food-based dietary guidelines and a school feeding law. Researchers say these steps are useful but need to go further.

The traffic-light food label

Ecuador has required a front-of-pack label on processed food for more than a decade. Each packet shows a traffic-light panel for sugar, fat and salt: green for low, amber for medium and red for high.

In its first year, the label did not reduce purchases of high-sugar soft drinks, a study using household shopping data found. Over a longer period, sales did shift slowly from high-sugar to low- and no-sugar drinks.

A later survey in Quito, Ibarra and Riobamba found that people who used the label in Quito ate less ultra-processed food and more fruit and vegetables. Older people and those with less schooling were less aware of the label.

A tax on sugary drinks

Ecuador applies its special consumption tax (ICE) to sweetened drinks. Drinks with more than 25 grams of sugar per litre pay 18 US cents for every 100 grams of sugar.

A survey of 1,878 people published in the Revista Científica Hermes found that teenagers remain the biggest consumers of these drinks and concluded that the tax has not yet reached its health goal.

Dietary guidelines and school food

The Ministry of Public Health has issued Food-Based Dietary Guidelines (Guías Alimentarias Basadas en Alimentos, GABA) for the healthy population over two years of age. They set the national reference for a good diet.

The guidelines support the Intersectoral Food and Nutrition Plan and the Organic Law on School Feeding, which governs food offered in schools.

Where to get help for obesity in Ecuador

In Ecuador, the easiest entry point is a public health centre run by the Ministry of Public Health (MSP). Appointments for general medicine at first-level centres are free and open to anyone living in Ecuador, whatever their insurance.

You can book through the free 171 phone line, the SaludEc app, WhatsApp, the ministry website or at the centre itself. You do not need an identity card to be seen, although it helps.

At the visit, ask for your BMI and waist size to be measured and for checks of blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol. If needed, your doctor can refer you to a nutritionist or a specialist at a hospital.

Our doctor visit checklist helps you prepare questions. If past comments about your body make you hesitate, read our page on weight stigma in healthcare.

Ecuador compared with the world

Ecuador's adult obesity rate of 28.9 % is well above the world average of 16.2 %. For young people aged 5 to 19, it is 12.9 % compared with 8.2 % worldwide.

In 1990, Ecuador's adult rate of 9.7 % was already higher than the world's 6.7 %. The gap has since widened to more than twelve percentage points.

Among its Andean neighbours, Ecuador sits close to Peru (29.2 %) and Bolivia (29.7 %) and above Colombia (24.9 %) and Venezuela (23.0 %). Further south, Chile is much higher at 40.5 %.

See how Ecuador compares with the rest of the world on our obesity by country page.

How Obesity Foundation can help you in Ecuador

Our aim is simple: to help you lose weight and feel better with good food, suitable exercise and walking, at no cost. Please see your doctor first before you change your meals or start a new routine.

• Eating plan: our free eating plan adapts well to Ecuadorian food. Fill half the plate with vegetables, add beans, lentils, fish or eggs, keep the rice or plantain portion smaller and drink water instead of cola or sweetened juice.
• Walking: the walking plan starts with short, easy walks. In Quito or Cuenca, take the altitude into account and build up slowly.
• Home workouts: our low impact cardio sessions are easy on the joints and need very little space.
• Personal advice: book a free video meeting (in English) and talk through your goals with us.
• Support: our free club sends friendly reminders and simple ideas to keep you going.
• Calculators: use our tools to see your BMI, waist risk and a healthy weekly goal.

For background, read what obesity is and why it is recognised as a chronic disease.