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Fat, Lean States: Which Is Yours?
July 17, 2008 -- At least a quarter of U.S. adults are obese, and that's just the ones who admit it, according to new adult obesity statistics from the CDC.
Nationally, 25.6% of adults are obese, up 1.7 percentage points from 2005. That's not just a few extra pounds; it's a BMI of 30 or more. BMI ( body mass index) relates height to weight.
Colorado's Lean Living Tips
Since 1990, Colorado has ranked as the skinniest state in the country. Sure,
the great climate and beautiful scenery have something to do with it, but that
alone isn't keeping them thinner. What are they doing that the rest of the
nation is not? Find out more about Colorado's
lean-living tips in this WebMD story.
If you're interested in seeing how Colorado and the rest of the country compare, check out this map from the CDC showing how obesity rates in the U.S. have dramatically changed since 1989.
Mississippi has the highest percentage of obese adults -- 32% -- followed by Alabama, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Arkansas. Colorado cuts the leanest figure, with 18.7% of its adults in the obese range. Colorado has had the lowest adult obesity prevalence since 1990.
Still, no state -- not even Colorado -- met the federal government's goal of trimming that figure to no more than 15% by 2010.
"None of the states met that goal of obesity prevalence of 15% and it looks like we are continuing to head in the wrong direction," CDC epidemiologist Celeste Philip, MD tells WebMD.
The CDC's web site puts America's obesity boom in living color, with a map showing states turning from blue (low percentage of obese adults) to dark red (high percentage) since 1989.
State-by-State Obesity List
Here's how each state -- plus Washington, D.C. -- ranks in adult obesity prevalence, along with the percentage of obese adults. States with the same prevalence are listed together.
- Mississippi: 32%
- Alabama: 30.3%
- Tennessee: 30.1%
- Louisiana: 29.8%
- Arkansas: 28.7%
- West Virginia: 29.5%
- South Carolina: 28.4%
- Georgia: 28.2%
- Oklahoma and Texas: 28.1%
- North Carolina: 28%
- Michigan: 27.7%
- Alaska, Missouri, and Ohio: 27.5%
- Delaware and Kentucky: 27.4%
- Pennsylvania: 27.1%
- Iowa and Kansas: 26.9%
- Indiana: 26.8%
- North Dakota: 26.5%
- South Dakota: 26.2%
- Nebraska: 26%
- Minnesota: 25.6%
- Oregon: 25.5%
- Arizona and Maryland: 25.4%
- Washington: 25.3%
- New York: 25%
- Illinois: 24.9%
- Maine: 24.8%
- Wisconsin: 24.7%
- Idaho: 24.5%
- New Hampshire: 24.4%
- Virginia: 24.3%
- Nevada: 24.1%
- New Mexico: 24%
- Wyoming: 23.7%
- New Jersey: 23.5%
- California: 22.6%
- Montana, Utah, and Washington, D.C.: 21.8%
- Hawaii and Rhode Island: 21.4%
- Massachusetts and Vermont: 21.3%
- Connecticut: 21.2%
- Colorado: 18.7%
The data, published in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, came from telephone interviews with 404,300 U.S. adults aged 18 and older in 2007. Here's the catch: They may have misreported their self-reported height and weight.
Men tend to overestimate their height and women tend to underestimate their weight, so America's true obesity statistics may actually be higher, Philips says. She says that the last time that the CDC measured a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults, instead of relying on self-reported weight and height, 34.3% were obese.
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