CDC: One in Four Americans Are Now Obese

USAgNet - 07/22/2008

The obesity rate in the U.S. went up again. While this may fall solidly into the dog-bites-man category of unsurprising news, the latest figure at 25.6% puts us across a threshold: For the first time, according to an ongoing federal survey, more than one in four Americans is obese.

The data, published yesterday by the CDC, come from the 2007 results of a long-running national telephone survey.

The estimate is probably low, because people tend to overestimate their height and underestimate their weight, the CDC said.

Earlier versions of the same survey show how fast the obesity rate has risen in this country. In 2005, the rate was 23.9%, up from 19.8% in 2000 and 15.3% in 1995.

So in a little over a decade, we've gone from an obesity rate of fewer than one in six people, to more than one in four.

usagnet.com