Monday, January 19, 2009

Obese And Overweight Americans Growing In Number

Being overweight is not included in a healthy lifestyle, considered a bad thing. Too much fat on the body causes a lot of stress on the skeletal and muscular systems, the structures that keep the body standing. Being obese brings with it a number of effects on the cardiovascular and respiratory systems, and can become one of the most debilitating physical problems that a person can have. It isn't difficult to imagine that being both overweight and obese at the same time would be a major problem for people. The American federal government has been trying very hard to curb the slow increase of both problems, but a recent study has found that rather than go down, the numbers are going up. The worse news, however, is that the numbers show that more and more people are being both overweight and obese.

The National Center for Health Statistics, which has been keeping records of public health matters in terms of numbers in the population, has recently published the latest statistics on overweight and obese people in the US. The data shows a very dismal estimate. More than 34% of the total US population is obese, in comparison the lower number of those who are overweight, which was at 32.7%. The only bright side is that those who are considered obese in the extreme only appeared to be at 6%. Still, more than one-third of all adults – an estimated 72 million people – are obese and overweight.

The statistics were obtained by using mobile physical examination centers, taking the relevant measurements of over 4,356 people over the age of 20. The physical examinations included measurements of height and weight, along with more comprehensive body measurements. The study found that obesity has doubled in prevalence since 1980, while the prevalence of overweight people in the population has remained relatively stable within that same time period.

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