By most measures, close to a third of Americans are overweight if the scientific BMI measurement is used. Some smaller portion are “morbidly obese”, at the far end of the yardstick of those who weight may cause severe health problems.
Most research by both academic institutions, and government bodies like the CDC, claim that the cost of obesity runs into the tens of billions of dollars a year, due to diabetes, heart disease, and the crippling impact on joints. Obesity’s medical side effects drive American healthcare costs higher, and there are no data which show the obesity problem improving.
New data from Gallup shows that many Americans who are obese are aware of the condition, but many fewer do anything meaningful to help themselves. More astonishingly, some people who are obese do not admit it.
Americans’ desire to lose weight does not necessarily translate into their doing anything to achieve it. While 51% of adults want to lose weight, barely half as many (25%) say they are seriously working toward that goal. This discrepancy between Americans’ weight-loss desires and behavior has existed for years.
And,
More Americans want to lose weight than actually see themselves as overweight. Overall, 36% describe themselves as overweight, on par with 34% in 2012, but down slightly from most years since 2002 and from 1990. This includes 34% of men and 39% of women who say they are overweight.
Americans are much more likely to say their weight is “about right” than to say they are “overweight.” It is possible that that some adults are reluctant to label themselves as overweight or lean toward saying they are “about right” if they are only a few pounds overweight.
The information should give medical experts and government officials who are concerned with health and the effects on the U.S. budget with an uneasy feeling. So far, there has been no set of programs which has been put together to raise the awareness of obesity problems. And, even if there were, Americans might not change their habits even if they were better informed.
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