Body weight continues to be a big public health issue in the United States. New government research suggests that the condition of having far too much fat stored in the body – severe obesity – has increased greatly over the past ten years.
The U.S. obesity rate is about 40 percent, says a 2021-2023 study of about 6,000 people. Almost one in 10 of those questioned reported severe obesity, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found. Women were nearly two times as likely as men to report severe obesity.
The overall obesity rate appeared to decrease in comparison to the 2017-2020 survey. But the change was not considered statistically meaningful. In other words, the numbers are small enough that there is a mathematical chance the rates did not truly drop.
Dr. Samuel Emmerich is the CDC public health officer who led the latest study. He said it is too soon to know whether new treatments for obesity, including weight-loss drugs such as Wegovy and Zepbound, can help ease the disease.
“We simply can’t see down to that detailed level to prescription medication use and compare that to changes in obesity prevalence,” Emmerich said. He added, “Hopefully that is something we can see in the future.”
The results show that the overall obesity rate in the U.S. has not changed much in ten years. The rate of severe obesity climbed from almost eight percent in the 2013-2014 study to almost 10 percent in the most recent one.
Before that, obesity had increased quickly in the U.S. since the 1990s, federal studies showed.
Measures of obesity and severe obesity are based on the body mass index (BMI), a computation involving height and weight. People with a BMI of 30 are considered obese. Those with a BMI of 40 or higher have severe obesity.
Solveig Cunningham is an Emory University global health professor who specializes in obesity.
Cunningham said, “Seeing increases in severe obesity is even more alarming because that’s the level of obesity that’s most highly associated with some of the highest levels of cardiovascular disease and diabetes and lower quality of life.”
Cunningham, who was not involved in the new study, said it is not clear why rates of severe obesity are going up. Cunningham also said it is not clear why severe obesity rates were higher among women.
Reasons could include the effects of hormones, the effects of childbearing or other causes that require further study, she said.
The new study also found that obesity rates varied by education. Almost 32 percent of people with a bachelor’s degree or higher reported having obesity. In comparison, about 45 percent of those with some college or less had obesity.
The new report follows the release earlier this month of data from U.S. states and territories that showed that in 2023, the rate of obesity differed widely by place.
The highest obesity levels were in West Virginia. Around 41 percent of adults in the state are obese.
The lowest levels were in Washington, D.C., with less than 24 percent of adults being obese.
Obesity rates were highest in the Midwest and the South.
All U.S. states and territories had obesity rates higher than 20 percent. In 23 states, more than 1 in 3 adults had obesity, the data showed. Before 2013, no state had a rate that high, said Dr. Alyson Goodman, who leads a CDC team focused on population health.
Color-coded maps show the obesity rates across the U.S.
“Sometimes, when you look at all that red, it’s really discouraging,” Goodman said.
But, she added, recent attention on understanding obesity as a metabolic disease and new drug treatments give her hope.
Preventing obesity is most important, Cunningham said, starting in early childhood. And for people already dealing with obesity, preventing additional weight gain should be the goal.
I’m John Russell. And I'm Ashley Thompson.
