31 U.S. states showed an increase in obesity rates over the previous year. The number of obese adults now exceeds 25 percent in 13 states.
Mississippi continued to be the "fattest" state, with 29.5 percent of adults there considered obese.
This is an increase of 1.1 percentage points from the year before. Nine of the 10 states with the highest levels of obesity are located in the South. West Virginia, the third heaviest state, also recorded the highest rate of type 2 diabetes, at 10.4 percent.
Colorado remained the thinnest state, with 16.9 percent of its adults considered obese. However, that is still also a slight increase. Only Nevada showed a decrease in the percentage of obese adults.
The results are associated with poverty rates. The five states with the highest obesity rates (Mississippi, Alabama, West Virginia, Louisiana and Kentucky) also have much higher poverty rates than the national norm. The five states with the lowest obesity (Colorado, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont) have relatively low poverty rates.
If you live in Colorado you win. Your state is the "fittest" state in America,
However, the obesity epidemic is so out of control that even the fitest and least fat state in the US still fails to meet the 2010 adult obesity guidlines of 15% of the population as 17% of people living in Colorado are obese, not overweight as that is likely over 35%, but obese.
Obesity is surely influenced by our own individual lifestyle choices, but cultural factors also contribute. Naturally, these cultural factors are most apparent when you compare the obesity rates of different countries that have totally different diets and lifestyles, but the United States is a diverse place in itself, and each state and city has its own unique culture and lifestyle.
Some places are also simply more accepting of extra weight. These beliefs will certainly influence your own weight loss efforts. This can make it harder for you to stick to a healthy diet.
But the good news is that obesity nearly 100 percent preventable by following my
I think it's important to note that obesity actually goes up in states where there is more poverty. The real cause of obesity is inactivity coupled with an abundance of sugars and grains, which are converted to sugars in the body. A diet high in cheap, starchy, sugary, processed foods is the quickest way to become obese.
Eating too many carbohydrates causes your insulin levels to rise, sending your body a hormonal message essentially telling it to store fat while holding on to the fat that is already there. So not only will excess carbohydrates make you fat, they will make you stay fat. Limiting sugar is crucial in moderating this insulin response.
That is one of the primary reasons why exercise is so crucial in weight control as it helps normalize insulin resistance. You should start an exercise plan right away.
Another major step in improving your diet is to eat right for your nutritional type. Knowing your own nutritional type will help you learn the right (and wrong) foods to eat to fit your own body's metabolism and prevent diseases. What may be very healthy for others is not necessarily as healthy for you, and vice-versa, and eating according to your nutritional type is really the only way to ascertain what is really good for you.
If you would like to learn more please take the free, four-part mini course on nutritional typing. All you have to do is enter your e-mail in the yellow box below.