More than 60 percent of Americans are obese or overweight, according to a new study published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association Internal Medicine.
More men are overweight, but more women are obese, according to the article.
To come to this conclusion, researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine in St. Louis looked at data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s way to track the country’s fitness. The survey asks 5,000 Americans questions about their diet, health, economic and demographic, and includes physical, dental and physiological examinations and tests.
The researchers took data from the survey from 2007 to 2012, looking at the results of more than 15,000 men and women above the age of 25. That massive sample is representative of more than 188 million Americans, according to the article.
The article estimates that about 40 percent, or 36 million American men and about 30 percent, or almost 29 million American women were overweight.
More than 35 percent of men, or almost 32 million, and almost 37 percent of women or nearly 36 million were obese, according to the article.