The project was launched just days after the Press and Journal revealed that some oil companies were asking employees to diet to free up more space on helicopters.
Shell and Transocean are targeting staff with a waist size larger than 37in and have brought in a healthcare firm to help workers beat the bulge.
Dr Graham Furnace, medical adviser for Oil and Gas UK and joint leader of the study, saidit was unrealistic to expect everyone to slim down.
“Oil and gas companies put a lot of effort into wellness initiatives,” he said.
“But we need to accept that weight gain has been a change in the population as a whole and we can’t just say ‘let’s put everyone on a diet and we’ll go back to what we were 30 years ago’.
“This project is about tackling that change.”