Obese Americans Now Outweigh the Overweight

It looks like we’re losing the war on obesity.

According to new research published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, there are now more obese than overweight adults in America. And unfortunately, the majority of U.S. women and men are now considered overweight or obese.

For the study, researchers from the Washington University School of Medicine analyzed data collected between 2007 and 2012 as part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, an ongoing survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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They used height and weight information from the data to calculate subjects’ BMIs and estimated that nearly 68 million Americans over the age of 25 were obese as of 2012. More than 65 million were considered overweight.

(A normal BMI is considered 18.5 to 24.9, the 25 to 29.9 range is considered overweight, and over 30 is considered obese.)

Nearly 36 percent of 25- to 54-year-old women are now classified as obese, while 29 percent are considered overweight. And it doesn’t get any better as we age: Almost 39 percent of women over 55 are considered obese, and 32 percent are overweight.

Worth noting: Just 25 percent of 25- to 54-year-old women are considered a normal weight.

Guys didn’t fare much better: Three out of four American men have a higher-than-normal weight.

Why is this so bad? Being obese or overweight is linked to an increased risk of developing diseases such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and some forms of cancer. And often the more overweight a person is, the greater their disease risk.

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Of course, BMI has been a controversial method of calculating weight for years. For example, a really muscular person could be labeled as “overweight” or “obese” according to BMI calculations, while a person with excess stomach fat (a known health risk) might not be flagged at all.

But scientists say BMI is a good indicator when you’re looking at the population as a whole.

There’s no getting around it: Our country has a weight problem.

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