- According to troubling new findings from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 4 in 10 US adults have a body mass index classifying them as obese
- Adult obesity rates have continued to increase steadily since the turn of the century, rising from 30% in 1999-2000 to 39% in 2015-2016, a record high
- Young Americans have also been piling on the pounds and the obesity rate among the country’s youth (aged 2-19 years old) currently stands at 18 percent
- That trend is most worrying, given that young people are far more likely to stay obese while childhood obesity is linked to a higher chance of an early death in adulthood
- So all in all, just over 70 percent of all Americans are either overweight or obese, meaning people with normal weight levels are now a minority.
