Colorado was the state with the least obesity

The United States of America continues to get a fatter and a new survey recently released by the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention shows that the state of Mississippi is still leading the way when it comes to the largest amount of citizens suffering from obesity. Mississippi has led in the obesity stakes since 2004. Following hot on the heels of Mississippi were Alabama and Tennessee which all had over 30 percent of their adults having a BMI of 30+ making them clinically obese. West Virginia and Louisiana were also near the top of the list.

The southern states of America have been known to have more of a problem with obesity than the rest of America for some time now and this is put down to lower incomes, lower education levels and poor diets. Other nutrition experts said that the traditional southern states diet consist of food which is high in fat and very often fried.

On the other hand at the other extreme Colorado was the state with the least obesity with only nineteen percent suffering from BMI’s of 30+. Colorado is a state known for its emphasis on exercise and healthy outdoor living and far more of its residents go hiking or cycling on the hundreds of different National Parks and nature trails.

It is worth noting that the way that the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention collected the data was by using a telephone survey of 350,000 adults. The adults were asked to state their height and their weight over the phone so their BMI’s could be worked out. It is a commonly known truth that men will overstate how tall they are and women are extremely likely to give a figure of their weight which is significantly less than the real figure.

Overall the figures show that more than one in four adults in America are clinically obese and this is probably an extremely conservative estimate as another Centre for Disease Control and Prevention survey done in 2004 but done where the researchers actually weighed and measured the participants themselves came up with an adult rate of obesity 34 percent.