Almost three-quarters of US adults are overweight or obese, according to a new study.
That leaves just an estimated 86 million people with a healthy BMI of under 25, a situation the researchers described as ‘an epidemic’.
The new study, one of the most comprehensive of its kind, compiled data from more than 100 surveys, polls, and studies conducted since 1990.
They found that between 72 and 75 percent of American adults were overweight or obese, meaning they had a body max index (BMI) of above 25 and 30, respectively.
For children, they found more than a third of children and adolescents up to age 25 were overweight or obese.
Using these trends from the past three decades – the researchers predicted that the number of overweight and obese adults will reach 213 million by 2050.
That means that two in three adults alone will be obese, not even accounting for overweight people.
However, separate CDC research published recently has suggested that the tide might be turning, and rates might actually be falling as part of an ‘Ozempic effect.’
The CDC’s September 2024 report was part of a national survey called the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which was conducted from 2021 to 2023 to gather information on different health trends.
Their September issue had data from 2022 to 2023 and compared trends as far back as 2013. The rates they calculated come from applying the survey they took to the whole country, which means it’s an estimation based on the most recent ten-year trends.
It also only included people with a BMI over 30, who are considered obese and didn’t consider people in the overweight range, from 25 to 30.
By contrast, the Lancet paper took in data up to 2021, and considered studies as far back as 1990.
They combined the CDC surveys with other measurements from private universities and polling companies to add more data to the sample.
Obesity is of concern to public health officials largely because there are a large number of health conditions associated with being overweight – including diabetes, heart disease and cancer.
The study authors said this has a striking effect on both the individual dealing with health problems and on the wider economy and healthcare system. In 2016, healthcare costs associated with obesity totaled as much as $481 billion.
The researchers suggest that a confluence of factors may be contributing to this epidemic, including the fact that healthy, fresh food, tends to be more expensive and less accessible than highly processed foods that are high in sugar and fat.
Their study, published in The Lancet, used data from 134 different sources from 1980 to 2021 to create their dataset.
This included CDC surveys, Gallup polls, and long-term studies like Women’s Health Across the Nation.
Over 100 scientists from international organizations participated in the research, forming a group called the GBD 2021 US Obesity Forecasting Collaborators.
Combining the information from these different sources, they created maps of obesity prevalence by age and gender from 1990 to 2021.
They then used a model to apply the trends they’d observed over the past three decades to the next 25 years.
They sorted people into three groups: children, aged five to 14, adolescents aged 15 to 24 and adults aged over 25 years. They also placed them into different groups based on weight.
