Here’s the good news from the front lines of our war against obesity: The percentage of American women considered obese has not increased since a 2000 survey, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
And that's the only good news -- if you can even call that good news, since a third of women still fall into the big 'O' territory. Meanwhile, there's some really heavy stuff going on with everyone else. The number of overweight U.S. children (kids don’t have an "obese" category) rose from nearly 14 percent in 2000 to 17 percent in 2004, while the statistics for obese adult men jumped from 27.5 percent to 31 percent. This is a new record, by the way -- the kind no one wants to break.
"I'm not surprised," says Dr. Lisa Hark, Director of the Nutrition Education and Prevention Program at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and host of the TLC network’s new family-nutrition makeover show, 'Honey, We’re Killing the Kids.' "I'm very aware of these statistics." And, Dr. Hark, points out, they’re even worse than they appear, since the "obese" category doesn't include all those people who are simply "overweight." Notes Hark, "We need to focus on the overweight group as well because it has also increased significantly." Specifically, 7 out of 10 adults are overweight or obese.
And just so you're clear on the difference, a body-mass index (calculated using a person's weight and height) for an "overweight" person ranges from 25 to 29.9, while the "obese" person has a BMI greater than 30. There’s also an "extreme obese" category for those with a BMI over 40, which, at least, has lost a few members, dropping from 3.1 to 2.8 percent of adults.
Maybe the problem is that too few of us realize we're fat. A new Pew Research poll finds that, while almost all Americans can identify other overweight people, they're not too good at recognizing their own girth.
Only 40 percent of respondents consider themselves too fat (that number, if you've been paying attention, should be 70 percent).
Says Hark, "The bottom line is, we've become a very overweight society."
A note of "skeptical optimism," though, comes from Dr. William Dietz, director of the CDC's division of nutrition and physical activity. Since the number of obese women have remained stable in the last five years, Dietz muses, "I think things have to plateau before they start decreasing, and women are early adapters of health related behaviors. So I’m optimistic -- but I'm also skeptical because one change in the increase of prevalence doesn't make a trend."
Obesity Special Report Part 1
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