Fat, Lean States: Which is Yours?
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.
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.
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.
Fat, Lean States: Which Is Yours?
Adult Obesity Most Common in Mississippi, Rarest in Colorado; At Least 1 in 4 Obese Nationally
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.
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%
