Posted on 11/28/2007 11:13:51 PM PST by neverdem
Obesity rates in women have leveled off and stayed steady since 1999, long enough for researchers to say the plateau appears to be real. And, they say, there are hints that the rates may be leveling off for men, too.
The researchers’ report, published online at cdc.gov/nchs, used data from its periodic national surveys that record heights and weights of a representative sample of Americans. Those surveys, said Cynthia L. Ogden, an epidemiologist at the National Center for Health Statistics and the lead author of the new report, are the only national ones that provide such data.
Dr. Ogden added that the trend for women was “great news.” Obesity rates have held at about 35 percent since 1999, convincing her that the tide had changed. “I’m optimistic that it really is leveling off,” she...
--snip--
Obesity is defined as a body mass index, a measure of weight for height, of 30 or greater. For example, someone 5 feet 6 inches tall would be obese at 186 pounds. The goal at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is for the obesity rate to be no more than 15 percent by 2010.
--snip--
The report found that obesity rates varied with age. The highest were in people 40 to 59, when 40 percent of men were obese and 41 percent of women were.
For women, but not men, the rates also varied with ethnicity. Non-Hispanic black and Mexican-American women had the highest rates — about half were obese when they were in their 40s and 50s. In contrast, 39 percent of non-Hispanic white women were obese at that age.
As black women got older, their rates increased again. Sixty-one percent of black women 60 and older were obese, compared with 32 percent of white women and 37 percent of Mexican-American women...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
We’re just going to have to eat harder.
I guess people can only get so fat, then tend to level off at the level where they burn just as many calories haullng all that lard around as they are eating.
not sure how that follows about rate in the population
Ahh studies. Where would we be without them?
It means 35% of women and 49% of men will reach that “plateau” of being 50-100 lbs. overwieght “level off” and stay that way.
Who cares?! I’d bet the reporters that write this crap are obese. Whatever “obese” means. The definition seams to change every month.
In the zone.
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FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.
It seems the obesity bubble correlates to the baby boom bubble. Are we not at our fattest between ages 40 and 55 or so?
we’ll see. all I know is I have to be responsible for my own health
Probably the obesity rate had to stop to catch its breath.
Maximum capacity?
They’d better lower the BMI levels to keep this crises on the front page.
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