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You’ve Come a Long Way Baby: Women Now Fatter Than Men
Posted On Nov 14 2015
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The latest CDC report on obesity brings good news, pinpointing a flattening rate of the obesity epidemic, particularly with children and teenagers.
The CDC says the changes in the prevalence of adult obesity were so slight between 2011 and 2014 (the most recent data available) that they were not statistically significant. However, the best news is that with children and teenagers, obesity rates have remained virtually unchanged from the previous reporting period.
In the case of while men and white women, the gap is not much, but for blacks, the obesity rate among females has increased to 57%, which is much more than male rate of 38%.
“This is a striking finding” and suggests that a situation that was thought to be stable is getting worse, said Dr. William Dietz, an obesity expert at George Washington University.
However, University of North Carolina professor of nutrition, Barry Popkin comments, “The biggest problem is that the obesity rates among low-income Americans and minorities are not improving”. Until the early 1980s, only about 1 in 6 adults were obese, but the rate climbed dramatically until it hit about 1 in 3 around a decade ago. Generally, it can be harder to draw reliable national conclusions from a smaller survey.
Study author and CDC epidemiologist Cynthia Ogden says these gender differences are a new development. Right now, 38 percent of women are obese, compared with only 34 percent of men; and 42 percent of middle-aged women are obese, compared with 38 percent of middle-aged men. “And one USDA report showed that Americans were eating 118 calories a day fewer in 2009-2010 than four years before”, Fortune reported. “Although the overall prevalence of childhood obesity is higher than the Healthy People 2020 goal of 14.5 percent, the prevalence of obesity among children aged 2-5 years is below the goal of 9.4 percent”. Obesity is defined using cut points of body mass index (BMI). According to CDC definitions, a 5-foot-10 man is overweight at 174 pounds and obese at 209.
