It is good to be at a “normal” weight, which is usually calculated based on the BMI. There are many criticisms of the BMI method, but it provides a general estimate of what a healthy weight looks like. However, as the American appetite for food and wasteline has expanded significantly, with almost half of the population approaching levels of obesity, being of a “normal” weight makes a man statistically abnormal.
A prestigious team of medical scientists has projected that by 2030, nearly one in two adults will be obese, and nearly one in four will be severely obese. The estimates are thought to be particularly reliable, as the team corrected for current underestimates of weight given by individuals in national surveys. In as many as 29 states, the prevalence of obesity will exceed 50 percent, with no state having less than 35 percent of residents who are obese, they predicted.
Likewise, the team projected, in 25 states the prevalence of severe obesity will be higher than one adult in four, and severe obesity will become the most common weight category among women, non-Hispanic black adults and low-income adults nationally.
Given the role obesity plays in fostering many chronic, disabling and often fatal diseases, these are dire predictions indeed. Yet, as with climate change, the powers that be in this country are doing very little to head off the potentially disastrous results of expanding obesity, obesity specialists say. (source)
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