12 states now have obesity rates of 30% and higher, say the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who base their information on a 2010 survey that shows no state reported an obesity rate lower than 20%. This contrasts sharply with the situation only ten years earlier, when in 2000, no state reported an obesity rate higher than 25%.

By 2010, the number of states with obesity rates of 25% or more had risen to 36.

The most obese state was Mississippi, with 34% of adults considered obese, while the state with the lowest obesity rate was Colorado, at 21%.

The other 11 states with obesity rates of 30% or more were: Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia.

There was a slight glimmer of hope, however, in that more than half of the states reported that obesity rates had fallen from 2009 to 2010, but these drops were tiny, often less than 1%.

The latest figures, for 2010, come from the CDC’s most recent Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, a state-by-state phone survey that gathers data from 400,000 adults aged 18 and over who self-report their weight and height. From this the CDC can then calculate their BMI (the ratio of a person’s weight in kilograms to their height in metres squared kg/m2).

The figures show that all states failed to meet the government’s Healthy People 2010 target, which was to reduce obesity rates to below 20% in the ten years from 2000.

Some experts say the true picture could be unrepresented in these statistics, because in telephone surveys people tend to say they weigh less than they really do.

A BMI of 30 and over is classed as obese. Overweight is a BMI of 25 to 29.9, and normal weight is a BMI of 18.5 to 24.9.

Thus a person who is 5′ 9″ tall and weighs between 125 lbs to 168 lbs has a BMI in the Normal range. A person of the same height who weighs 203 lbs or more is considered obese.

You can calculate your BMI using our BMI Calculator.

Source: CDC

Written by: Catharine Paddock, PhD