According to new data issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on September 12, more than one in five adult Americans lives with obesity in every state in the union, with rates climbing in several of them. Nonetheless, our data indicates that the average national obesity rate decreased slightly from 33.9% in 2022 to 33.6% in the previous year. Experts tell Yahoo Life that despite the most recent data, they don’t think the nation’s obesity rates will change significantly shortly.
The most recent data on obesity in the United States tells us four important facts.
1. According to the CDC, although the national obesity rate has decreased recently, it is still high.
In the United States, not a single state has a lower than 20% obesity rate, defined as having a body mass index of 30 or greater. Colorado is the only state, aside from Washington, D.C., where less than 25% of the population is obese (and even then, just by a little margin—24.9% of those surveyed had a BMI of 30 or above).
Although obesity is a worldwide issue, it is especially prevalent in the United States. 33.6% of Americans were obese on average in the previous year. That is almost the same rate that the CDC found in 2022, indicating a slight decline from the record prevalence of the year before:In 2021, 33.9% of the population was obese. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) lists obesity as one of the top five preventable causes of premature mortality. Obesity can increase the chance of developing chronic illnesses like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and certain malignancies.
Professor of medicine Gitanjali Srivastava of the Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s division of diabetes, endocrinology, and metabolism tells Yahoo Life that she is not shocked by the persistently high rates of obesity.
Sedentary lifestyles, the widespread availability of high-calorie, low-nutrient meals, and socioeconomic issues that restrict access to wholesome food and physical activity are some of the causes she cites as contributing to this trend. “In addition, obesity is a difficult condition to manage and prevent due to complex interactions between genetics, environment, and behavior.”
2. Obesity rates are not declining thanks to Ozempic.
The national obesity rate is still high. Dr. Jamy Ard of Wake Forest Baptist Health Weight Management Center tells Yahoo Life that he expects it to continue that way for some time—even in the era of Ozempic and other GLP-1 medications.
He claims there are two causes: a societal and a technical one. Technically, this is because many of the patients on these drugs have BMIs significantly higher than thirty. While taking a drug, they might lose a significant amount of weight, although their BMI might drop from 40 to 31. Ard notes that even if someone were to phone the CDC and complete the survey, which is how the agency obtained the new data, “they would still be classified as obese” based on their height and weight. This is among the factors that have made BMI a contentious indicator of obesity.
Regarding the social cause, Ard states that “we have to stop the number of people who are abnormally gaining weight and developing obesity to change the prevalence of obesity.” “That’s the only way to bend this curve, and we haven’t had the political will to do that. That’s a prevention question, not a treatment question.”
3. The states with the highest obesity prevalence are those in the Midwest and South.
36% of people in the Midwest are classified as obese. In the South, where 34.7% of the population has a high BMI, rates are comparable. According to Srivastava, there are higher rates of poverty, less access to wholesome food, and fewer possibilities for physical activity in these places, which contribute to the high obesity rates. “Diets in these areas are frequently heavy in foods high in calories but low in nutrients,” notes Srivastava. She continues:
Additionally, she notes that “cultural norms and traditions that may prioritize larger portion sizes and less physical activity” could be involved.
Although Ard lists many of the same causes, he is not as sure that the Midwest and South’s cultural customs and dietary habits differ enough from those of the rest of the nation to account for their greater obesity rates. “We live in a pretty mechanized society and have fairly easy access to calories everywhere in the United States, so we don’t have to be physically active if we don’t want to,” he says.
Rather, he believes that the lack of green space, bike lanes, sidewalks, and higher rates of poverty among those with jobs that leave them with little time to prioritize their health, as well as the likelihood of food insecurity and living in a food desert, contribute to the creation of what he refers to as an “obesogenic environment.”
“Just imagine the difference between having to come up with a plan to get 10,000 steps in your day, versus ‘I’m just going to go to work, and I’ll get my 10,000 steps naturally’ — that’s a very different calculus,” he adds, giving an example of how a lack of sidewalks and bike lanes might affect health.
4. The highest rates of obesity are found among Black and Hispanic Americans.
According to the CDC study, over 35% of adult Black individuals live in 38 states and are obese. Over 35% of Hispanic individuals in 34 states have a BMI of 30 or above. In thirty states, the obesity rate among American Indians and Alaska Natives was 35 percent. In contrast, 16 states have adult white obesity rates over 35% (none of which had Asian American obesity rates that high).
Despite how obvious the differences are, scientists claim that race or ethnicity is not a major factor in them. Although persons of different ethnicities may differ slightly in their metabolism and fat storage, Ard and Srivastava agree that cultural influences are typically more important. According to Ard, “Race is just a social variable; it is not a biological variable.” Minority populations frequently reside in underdeveloped areas and may, on average, have employment that doesn’t leave enough time for them to prioritize healthy lifestyle choices. This is an eloquent illustration of how the social variable separates health hazards.
