Ronnie Levine, consultant to the Trends in Obesity research project run by the University of Leeds, which has monitored obesity in schools for eight years, said it was "key" that all systems should be standardised and calibrated, or checked for consistency.
His call follows confirmation from the Department of Health that the Government plans to announce how it will monitor its progress on combating obesity early next year.
The measures, which aim to meet the Government's target of halting the year-on-year rise in obesity by 2010, are scheduled to be published in the delivery plan for the public health white paper.
Levine said: "We're getting conflicting figures on changes in the obesity rate. If we are to say obesity has increased by a certain percentage we have to be very sure about them."
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