Obesity hits America at a whole new level

The Obese population of the Unites States of America has reached a new milestone by outnumbering the merely overweight population,a new report in the Journal JAMA Internal Medicine has reported. It is old news that America has been struggling with obesity problems for a while now but this new statistics is another proof that all efforts to curb obesity have been in vain. The researchers from Washington University School of medicine in St. Louis have estimated that 67.6 million Americans who are over the age of 25 were obese in 2012 and an additional of 65.2 million were overweight. This count was based on the data collected between 2007 and 2012 as a part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The data also contained information on the BMI (Body Mass Index) of the people, which governs the health of a person in various classifications based on their score. A BMI between 18.5 and 24.9 is considered to be normal. However, a person with a BMI of 25 to 29.9 is considered to be overweight and above 30, it refers to an obese person.

The study also revealed that women were more likely to be obese rather than overweight. About 37 percent of women were found to be obese and 30 percent were found to be overweight. The general interpretation is that 2 out of every 3 women are obese. Clearly, the obese women won. As for the men, 35 per cent of them were found to be obese and 40 per cent were overweight. The obese figure was almost at par with women but still the number of overweight men exceeded them. All in all, 3 out of 4 men were obese.

The African- Americans had the highest rates of obesity among both the men and women at 39 and 57 percent respectively. In addition to that, the researchers noticed that 17 per cent of women and 7 percent of the men were extremely obese having BMI beyond 40.

Being overweight or obese increases the risk of falling prey to diseases at a much faster rate. It can lead to chronic health conditions such as Type 2 Diabetes or heart related problems. It also makes you look unattractive and increases the risk of cancer to a large extent.