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Study Highlights U.S. Obesity
A new study that followed Americans for three decades suggests that over time, 9 out of 10 men and 7 out of 10 women will become overweight. For those lucky few who made it to middle age without getting fat, don't congratulate yourself just yet - keep watching your waistline. Half of the men and women in the study who had made it well into adulthood without a weight problem ultimately became overweight. A third of those women and a quarter of the men became obese.
Researchers studied data gathered from 4,000 white adults over 30 years. Participants were between the ages of 30 and 59 at the start and were examined every four years. By the end of the study, more than 1 in 3 had become obese.
The findings, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine show obesity may be a greater problem than indicated by studies that look at a cross-section of the population at one point in time. Those so-called "snapshots" of obesity have found about 6 in 10 are overweight and about 1 in 3 are obese. The findings also re-emphasize that people must continually watch their weight.
While the health risks of being obese are much more severe than being overweight, those who are overweight are much more likely to go on to become obese. The study shows Americans live in an "environment in which it's hard not to become overweight or obese. Unless people actively work against that, that's what's most likely to happen to them."
Obesity raises the risk of heart disease, some cancers, diabetes and arthritis, and being overweight raises blood pressure and cholesterol, which in turn can raise the risk of heart disease.
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