The world is fat, but Americans tip the scales. The U.S. currently leads the rest of the developed world in terms of adult obesity rates and trails only Mexico in terms of overall overweight populations. Currently, 68 percent of American adults are overweight or obese with a BMI ranging from 25.0 to 29.9 and 34 percent of the population is strictly obese with a BMI starting at 30.0.
Obese and overweight populations are at risk for numerous health problems from heart disease and high blood pressure to stroke and cancer. Studies have also found that an obese person's life expectancy is cut short anywhere between 8 and 10 years when compared to the life expectancy of a person with a more normal weight.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nearly 70 percent of American adults aged 20 and older are either overweight or obese with the average weights for adult men and women at 194.7 pounds and 164.7 pounds respectively. But it's not only American adults who are seeing growing waistlines. Seventeen percent of children and teens aged two to 19-years-old are considered obese in the United States, and studies show that a high percentage of obese children and adolescents grow up to be obese adults.
Despite the already high numbers, overweight and obesity rates are projected to rise. The Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) projects that within a decade, three out of four Americans will be considered overweight or obese.
Top 10 Obese States
Top 10 Overweight States
U.S. counties with the highest rate of adult obesity:
1. Greene, AL: 43.5 percent
2. Holmes, MS: 42.3 percent
3. Humphreys, MS: 41.6 percent
4. Jefferson, MS: 41.6 percent
5. Dallas, AL: 41.2 percent
6. Tunica, MS: 41.1 percent
7. Claiborne, MS: 40.8 percent
8. Lowndes, AL: 40.3 percent
9. Macon, AL: 40.2 percent
10. Perry, AL: 40.2 percent