Health experts say that Scottish children are among the most overweight in the world.
This has been attributed to a diet of junk food and a couch potato lifestyle, which say the experts promises the possibility of severe health problems in later life.
According to official statistics, a third of Scots children were classed as overweight before they hit their teens, one in five was obese and more than one in ten was rated as severely obese.
Neville Rigby of the International Obesity Taskforce, an independent body that brings together obesity experts, says the figures class twenty percent of Scottish children as obese and in the same league as the U.S.
Rigby, the taskforce's director for public affairs, says high rates of obesity are seen in other countries, especially southern Europe, but what is being seen in Scotland is a worrying trend.
Scottish Health Statistics figures show that among Scottish children born in 2001, 20.7 percent were overweight before they were 4 years old.
Experts say that though no one factor causes childhood obesity a poor diet and a lack of exercise are considered key problems.
Dr Beckie Lang, a public health nutritionist at Britain's Association for the Study of Obesity, says there is a correlation between low income and poor food choices, and obesity often tracks deprivation.
She says there is a problem of filling up on cheap, poor quality food.