According to CDC, a healthy body mass index, or BMI, should hover between 18.5 and 24.9, entering the "obese" range at 30.
But alarmingly, a report issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that the obesity rate in the US in 2017-2018 spiked to 42.4%, per US News & World Report.
The new averages put us precipitously closer to falling into the latter: Average BMI was 29.1 for men in 2015-16, 29.6 for women; 16 years earlier, those figures were 27.8 and 28.2, respectively.
The CDC health survey which polled more than 5,000 adults found that those with severe obesity (having a body mass index of 40 or higher) rise from 4.7% to 9.2% in 2 decades.
- Black Americans claimed the highest rate, at 49.6%,
- Hispanics come in at 44.8% and
- Whites at 42.2%;
- Asians at a relatively low 17.4%.
Using data on more than 47,000 Americans ages 20 and over, another CDC report found average waist circumference jumped more than an inch for men, 2 inches for women, and a more pronounced trend was spotted in terms of weight: Men claimed an average weight of 197.9 pounds in 2015-2016 (up from 189.4 pounds in 1999-2000), while the average US woman registered 170.6 pounds, up from 163.8. For context, in the early ’60s, the average man weighed 166 pounds, the average woman 140, per the AP.
Why does it matter?
- It is quite evident that heart health greatly suffers with obesity.
- According to some estimates, annual medical costs for the obese may be as high as $210 billion.
- Scientists also found, per the research published in the Feb. 10 edition of JAMA Pediatrics, that puberty in girls has started about three months earlier per decade from 1977 to 2013—meaning girls today are heading into puberty about a year earlier than their ’70s counterparts. The average age of onset in the US is 8.8 to 10.3 years, while in Europe it’s between 9.8 and 10.8 years, and in Africa 10.1 to 13.2 years.
- A study in the Lancet sees obesity as a leading cause for potential trouble with colorectal, endometrial, gallbladder, kidney, and pancreatic cancers, as well as multiple myeloma.
Source: Internet and Other
