New statistics cited in two papers report only a slight uptick since 2005 — leaving public health experts tentatively optimistic that they may be gaining some ground in their efforts to slim down the nation.
Many obesity specialists say the new data, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, are a sign that efforts to address the obesity problem — such as placing nutritional information on food packaging and revising school lunch menus — are beginning to have an effect in a country where two-thirds of adults and one-third of children and teens are overweight or obese.
"A good first step is to stop the increase, so I think this is very positive news," said James O. Hill, director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver. "It may suggest our efforts are starting to make a difference. The bad news is we still have obesity rates that are just astronomical.
By contrast women tend to carry excess weight in their hips and thighs which is associated with less risk to their health, Foster says.
However, the high obesity rate "will continue to confer significant medical, psychosocial and economic consequences for our country," he says.
O'Neil agrees. Obesity is taking a toll on the health of millions of people, he says. "The flood tide of obesity shows no signs of receding, and continues to threaten to engulf the health care system."
Among the other findings released online Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association:
•About 69% of adults in the USA are either overweight or obese; that's up from 64.5% in 2000.
•About 42% of women over 60 were obese in 2010 vs. about 32% of women 20 to 39.
•31.8% of kids and adolescents, ages 2 to 19, were obese or overweight.
•The average body mass index (BMI) of men rose to 28.7 in 2010 up from 27.7 in 2000. For women the average BMI remained unchanged at about 28.5.
Body mass is a number that takes into account height and weight. Adults are considered overweight if they have a BMI of 25 to 29.9. Obesity in adults is defined as a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or greater. Children are classified as overweight or obese based on where they fall on BMI growth charts.
This new analysis is based on data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which is considered the gold standard for evaluating the obesity problem in the USA because it is an extensive survey of people whose weight and height are actually measured rather than being self-reported.
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