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posted by martyb on Tuesday October 17 2017, @01:16AM   Printer-friendly
from the let-them-eat...-too-much-cake? dept.

The obesity rate in the U.S. is continuing to rise (slowly, off the couch):

The new measure of the nation's weight problem, released early Friday by statisticians from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, chronicles dramatic increases from the nation's obesity levels since the turn of the 21st century.

Adult obesity rates have climbed steadily from a rate of 30.5% in 1999-2000 to 39.8% in 2015-2016, the most recent period for which data were available. That represents a 30% increase. Childrens' rates of obesity have risen roughly 34% in the same period, from 13.9% in 1999-2000 to 18% in 2015-2016.

Seen against a more distant backdrop, the new figures show an even starker pattern of national weight-gain over a generation. In the period between 1976 and 1980, the same national survey found that roughly 15% of adults and just 5.5% of children qualified as obese. In the time that's elapsed since "Saturday Night Fever" was playing in movie theaters and Ronald Reagan won the presidency, rates of obesity in the United States have nearly tripled.

The new report, from the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics, measures obesity according to body mass index. This is a rough measure of fatness that takes a person's weight (measured in kilograms) and divides it by their height (measured in meters) squared. For adults, those with a BMI between 18.5 and 24.9 are considered to have a "normal" weight. A BMI between 25 and 29.9 is considered overweight, and anything above 30 is deemed obese. (You can calculate yours here.)

Obesity rates for children and teens are based on CDC growth charts that use a baseline period between 1963 and 1994. Those with a BMI above the 85th percentile are considered overweight, and those above the 95th percentile are considered obese.

70.7% of Americans are overweight or obese, according to the CDC's data for 2015-2016.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development expects the U.S. obesity rate to reach 47% in 2030.

Related: Obesity Surges to 13.6% in Ghana


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  • (Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Tuesday October 17 2017, @01:51AM (2 children)

    by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Tuesday October 17 2017, @01:51AM (#583257) Homepage

    This whole chain of reasoning is bullshit.

    Running feels good.

  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday October 17 2017, @02:03AM (1 child)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Tuesday October 17 2017, @02:03AM (#583264) Journal

    What exactly are you disagreeing with?

    Also, alcohol has calories in it.

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    • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday October 17 2017, @02:39AM

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday October 17 2017, @02:39AM (#583278) Journal

      Also, alcohol has calories in it.

      Well, that alone is not relevant. Here's a progression:
      1. Have almost to no alcohol in your diet and you'll be spared of the calories
      2. Have a small amount of alcohol in your diet, and you'll need to restrain yourself from other sources of calories...
      3. ... now, switch to an alcohol diet for long enough and I guarantee you your metabolism will switch into a mode (chronic alcoholism) which will make you lose weight fast. How do you know you had or had not enough? Well, simple, if you are still hungry after drinking, you haven't had enough (no, alcohol doesn't metabolize in fat).

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