Surveys in which U.S. adults report their current weight have shown that the share of those reporting they weigh 200 pounds or more has increased over the past few decades. In 2024, around 28 percent of respondents reported their weight as 200 pounds or more, compared to 15 percent in 1990. However, the same surveys show the share of respondents who report they are overweight has decreased compared to figures from 1990. What percentage of the U.S. population is obese? Obesity is an increasing problem in the United States that is expected to become worse in the coming decades. As of 2023, around one third of adults in the United States were considered obese. Obesity is slightly more prevalent among women in the United States, and rates of obesity differ greatly by region and state. For example, in West Virginia, around 41 percent of adults are obese, compared to 25 percent in Colorado. However, although Colorado is the state with the lowest prevalence of obesity among adults, a quarter of the adult population being obese is still shockingly high. The health impacts of being obese Obesity increases the risk of developing a number of health conditions including high blood pressure, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and certain types of cancer. It is no coincidence that the states with the highest rates of hypertension are also among the states with the highest prevalence of obesity. West Virginia currently has the third highest rate of hypertension in the U.S. with 45 percent of adults with the condition. It is also no coincidence that as rates of obesity in the United States have increased so have rates of diabetes. As of 2022, around 8.4 percent of adults in the United States had been diagnosed with diabetes, compared to six percent in the year 2000. Obesity can be prevented through a healthy diet and regular exercise, which also increases overall health and longevity.

This statistic depicts the average male body weight of U.S. adults aged 20 years and over from 1999 to 2016. According to the data, the average male body weight for those aged 40-59 years was 194.3 in 1999-2000 and increased to 200.9 as of 2015-2016.

This statistic depicts the average body weight of U.S. men aged 20 years and over from 1999 to 2016, by ethnicity. According to the data, the average male body weight for those that identified as non-Hispanic white has increased from 192.3 in 1999-2000 to 202.2 in 2015-2016.

Data on normal weight, overweight, and obesity among adults aged 20 and over by selected population characteristics. Please refer to the PDF or Excel version of this table in the HUS 2019 Data Finder (https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/hus/contents2019.htm) for critical information about measures, definitions, and changes over time. SOURCE: NCHS, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. For more information on the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, see the corresponding Appendix entry at https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus19-appendix-508.pdf.

In 2024, the mean average weight reported by men was 195 pounds, while the mean average weight for women was 164 pounds. This statistic shows the mean self-reported weight among U.S. adults from 1990 to 2024, by gender, in pounds.

This statistic depicts the average body weight of U.S. females aged 20 years and over from 1999 to 2016, by ethnicity. According to the data, the average female body weight for those that identified as non-Hispanic white has increased from 161.9 in 1999-2000 to 170.9 in 2015-2016.

This statistic depicts the average body weight of U.S. females aged 20 years and over from 1999 to 2016, by age. According to the data, the average female body weight for those aged 40-59 years was 169.4 in 1999-2000 and increased to 176.4 as of 2015-2016.

NA: Not applicable, for cells where the zero percent of the population fell into that category.(1) Prevalences and standard errors are calculated using the survey weights from the 5-year visit provided with the dataset. These adjust for unequal probability of selection and response. Survey and subclass estimation commands were used to account for complex sample design.(2) Overweight/obesity is defined as body mass index (BMI) z-score >2 standard deviations (SD) above age- and sex- specific WHO Childhood Growth Standard reference mean at all time points except birth, where we define overweight/obesity as weight-for-age z-score >2 SD above age- and sex- specific WHO Childhood Growth Standard reference mean.(3) To represent socioeconomic status, we used a composite index to capture multiple of the social dimensions of socioeconomic status. This composite index was provided in the ECLS-B data that incorporates information about maternal and paternal education, occupations, and household income to create a variable representing family socioeconomic status on several domains. The variable was created using principal components analysis to create a score for family socioeconomic status, which was then normalized by taking the difference between each score and the mean score and dividing by the standard deviation. If data needed for the composite socioeconomic status score were missing, they were imputed by the ECLS-B analysts [9].(4) We created a 5-category race/ethnicity variable (American Indian/Alaska Native, African American, Hispanic, Asian, white) from the mothers' report of child's race/ethnicity, which originally came 25 race/ethnic categories. To have adequate sample size in race/ethnic categories, we assigned a single race/ethnic category for children reporting more than one race, using an ordered, stepwise approach similar to previously published work using ECLS-B (3). First, any child reporting at least one of his/her race/ethnicities as American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN) was categorized as AIAN. Next, among remaining respondents, any child reporting at least one of his/her ethnicities as African American was categorized as African American. The same procedure was followed for Hispanic, Asian, and white, in that order. This order was chosen with the goal of preserving the highest numbers of children in the American Indian/Alaska Native group and other non-white ethnic groups in order to estimate relationships within ethnic groups, which is often not feasible due to low numbers.

Figure 7: Railroad Fuel Surcharges, North American Weight Average

Maternal obesity has been associated with a higher risk of pregnancy-related complications in mothers and offspring; however, effective interventions have not yet been developed. We tested two common interventions, calorie restriction and pravastatin administration, during pregnancy in a rhesus macaque model with the hypothesis that these interventions would normalize metabolic dysregulation in pregnant mothers leading to an improvement in infant metabolic and cognitive/social development. A total of 19 obese mothers were assigned to either one of the two intervention groups (n=5 for calorie restriction; n=7 for pravastatin) or an obese control group (n=7) with no intervention, and maternal gestational samples and postnatal infant samples were compared with lean control mothers (n=6). Gestational calorie restriction normalized one-carbon metabolism dysregulation in obese mothers but altered energy metabolism in their offspring. Although administration of pravastatin during pregnancy tended to normalize blood cholesterol in the mothers, it potentially impacted the gut microbiome and kidney function of their offspring. In the offspring, both calorie restriction and pravastatin administration during pregnancy tended to normalize the activity of AMPK in the brain at 6 months, and while results of the Visual Paired-Comparison test, which measures infant recognition memory, were not significantly impacted by either of the interventions, gestational pravastatin administration, but not calorie restriction, tended to normalize anxiety assessed by the Human Intruder test. Although the two interventions tested in a non-human primate model led to some improvements in metabolism and/or infant brain development, negative impacts were also found in both mothers and infants. Our study emphasizes the importance of assessing gestational interventions for maternal obesity on both maternal and offspring long-term outcomes. Methods Study population Pregnant female rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) from an indoor breeding colony at the California National Primate Research Center with appropriate social behavior and previous successful pregnancies were enrolled. Animal handling was approved by the UC Davis Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) (#19299). A qualitative real-time PCR assay (Jimenez & Tarantal, 2003) was used to identify mothers with male fetuses to include in this study. Since obesity is defined as subjects with body fat above 30% for women, according to guidelines from the American Society of Bariatric Physicians, American Medical Association, and in some publications (Okorodudu et al., 2010; Shah & Braverman, 2012), a Body Condition Score (BCS) of 3.5 (32.8 % body fat on average (Summers et al., 2012)) was used as the cutoff. Therefore, mothers with BCS of 3.5 and above were categorized as obese. Obese mothers were randomly assigned to the Obese Control (OC) group, OR group (received calorie Restriction), or OP group (received Pravastatin). Mothers with BCS of 2.5 and below were assigned to the Lean Control (LC) group. The unbalanced sample size was because some mothers were removed from the analyses due to fetal deaths for unknown reasons, misidentification of a female fetus, different timing for study enrollment, or technical issues upon collecting samples. The number of animals was six for the LC, seven for the OC, five for the OR, and seven for the OP groups. Feeding, rearing, and interventions Adult female animals were provided monkey diet (High Protein Primate Diet Jumbo #5047; LabDiet, St. Louis, MO, USA) twice a day between 6–9 am and 1–3 pm. The calories were provided as 56% from carbohydrates, 30% from protein, and 13% from. Mothers in the LC, OC, and OP groups were fed nine biscuits twice a day once pregnancy was confirmed. Mothers in the OR group received a restricted supply of food once the pregnancy was detected and was maintained throughout pregnancy. The food restriction was set such that the average total weight increase would be 8% body weight from the last day before conception because the recommended total weight gain in the 2nd and 3rd trimesters is 5-9 kg for the average US woman with obesity who weighs 80 kg and is 1.6 m in height (Body Mass Index of 30), according to the Institute of Medicine 2009 guidelines (Institute of Medicine and National Research Council, 2009). During nursing of infants older than 4 months, all mothers were provided twelve biscuits. Fresh produce was provided biweekly, and water was provided ad libitum for all mothers. Mothers in the OP group were given pravastatin sodium (ApexBio Technology, Houston, TX, USA) at 20 mg/kg body weight prepared in a neutralized syrup (20 mg/mL sodium bicarbonate dissolved in a fruit-flavored syrup (Torani, San Leandro, CA, USA)) once a day from the time pregnancy was confirmed until delivery. The caloric value of the administration was made so as not to influence body weight or skew nutritional value of the diet among all treatment groups. Both interventions were applied only during gestation. Although most mothers were allowed to deliver naturally, cesarean delivery was performed for fetal indications when recommended by veterinarians (2 for each of the LC and OC groups, and 1 for the OP group). These mothers did not accept their infant following birth, so foster mothers were provided. Sample Collection and pre-processing prior to sample storage The animal caretakers and researchers who collected samples were blinded for group assignment by coding all animals by IDs. The collected biological samples were randomized by using random numbers and the group assignment was blinded during the data collection. Both mothers (during pregnancy) and infants were weighed every week. One day before sample collection, food was removed 30 min after the afternoon feeding, and biological samples were collected prior to the morning feeding. To collect biological samples, animals were anesthetized using 5–30 mg/kg ketamine or 5–8 mg/kg telazol. Both maternal and infant blood was collected using 5 mL lavender top (EDTA) tubes (Monoject, Cardinal Health, Dublin, OH, USA) and urine was collected from the bladder by ultrasound-guided transabdominal cystotomy using a 22-gauge needle and stored in a 15 mL Falcon tube. A placental sample was collected at GD150 transabdominally under ultrasound guidance using an 18-gauge needle attached to a sterile syringe. Sample processing was as previously described in (Hasegawa et al., 2022). Necropsy was conducted between 9:30 am–1:30 pm. First, infants at the age of PD180 were fasted and anesthetized with ketamine, and plasma and urine were collected. Then, euthanasia was performed with 120 mg/kg pentobarbital, followed by heparin injection, clamping of the descending aorta, and flushing with saline until clear. The kidney and brain (amygdala, hippocampus, hypothalamus, and prefrontal cortex) were collected, weighed, and immediately frozen on dry ice or liquid nitrogen to store at -80 °C until further analyses. Metabolite extraction and analysis by 1H NMR, and measurement of insulin, cholesterol, cytokine, and cortisol Detailed procedures were previously described (Hasegawa et al., 2022). Briefly, plasma and urine samples were filtered using Amicon Ultra Centrifugal Filter (3k molecular weight cutoff; Millipore, Billerica, MA, USA), and the supernatant was used for analysis. For both the placental and brain tissue samples, polar metabolites were extracted using our previously reported method (Hasegawa et al., 2020). A total of 180 μL of sample (tissue extract or filtered urine or serum) was transferred to 3 mm Bruker NMR tubes (Bruker, Billerica, MA, USA). Within 24 h of sample preparation, all 1H NMR spectra were acquired using the noesypr1d pulse sequence on a Bruker Avance 600 MHz NMR spectrometer (Bruker, Billerica, MA, USA) (O’Sullivan et al., 2013). Chenomx NMRSuite (version 8.1, Chenomx Inc., Edmonton, Canada) (Weljie et al., 2006) was used to identify and quantify metabolites. Heparin-treated plasma samples were used to measure insulin and 17 cytokines and chemokines (hs-CRP, Granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor, IFN-γ, TNF-α, transforming growth factor-α, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1, macrophage inflammatory protein-1β (MIP-1β), and interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1ra), IL-2, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, IL-12/23 p40, IL-13, IL-15, and IL-17A) using a multiplex Bead-Based Kit (Millipore) on a Bio-Plex 100 (Bio-rad, Hercules, CA) following the manufacturer’s protocol. For each sample, a minimum of fifty beads per region were collected and analyzed with Bio-Plex Manager software using a 5-point standard curve with immune marker quantities extrapolated based on the standard curve. Two samples were removed for analysis of TNF-α and IL-1ra as technical errors (both from Animal ID 1132103: 895.2 and 1115.1 pg/mL at gestational days (GD) 90; 510.8 and 617.2 pg/mL at GD120, respectively). Plasma cholesterol level was measured by Clinical Laboratory Diagnostic Product (OSR6116) on Beckman Coulter AU480 (Beckman Coulter, Brea, CA). Infant plasma cortisol level at PD110 was assessed as previously described (Vandeleest et al., 2019; Walker et al., 2018). In short, infants were transferred to a test room at 9 am and blood was drawn at 11 am (Sample 1), followed by another blood collection at 4 pm (Sample 2) and intramuscular injection of 500 μg/kg dexamethasone (Dex) (American Regent Laboratories, Inc., Shirley, NY). On the next day, a blood sample was collected at 8:30 am (Sample 3), and then 2.5 IU of adrenocorticotropic hormone (Amphastar Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Rancho Cucamonga, CA) was injected intramuscularly. The last blood was collected (Sample 4) 30 min after adrenocorticotropic hormone injection. The collected blood samples were processed and stored, and cortisol concentration was assessed by a chemiluminescent assay on the ADVIA Centaur CP platform

Average composition of diets for weight loss.

As of February 2021, millennials in the United States reported an average undesired weight gain of 41 pounds since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. This statistic illustrates the average undesired weight gain reported by adults in the United States since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic as of February 2021 by demographic.

In the fall of 2024, around 53 percent of U.S. college students described their weight as “about the right weight”. Around 10 percent of respondents stated that they were slightly underweight, while 29 percent described themselves as slightly overweight. This statistic shows the percentage of college students in the United States who described themselves as underweight or overweight as of fall 2024.

This statistic depicts the average body mass index (BMI) of U.S. adults aged 20 years and over as of 2016, by gender. According to the data, the average male BMI has increased from 27.8 in 1999-2000 to 29.1 as of 2015-2016.

In 2022, the U.S. states with the highest rates of obesity among women were Tennessee, Louisiana, and Mississippi. At that time, almost 43 percent of women in Tennessee were considered obese. The states with the highest rates of obesity among men are West Virginia, Kentucky, and Oklahoma. Obesity: Women vs. men As of 2022, women in the United States had slightly higher rates of obesity than men. At that time, around 34.1 percent of women were considered obese, compared to 32.6 percent of men. Rates of obesity among both men and women are higher in the United States than any other OECD country, with high-calorie diets, often from fast food and sugary drinks, and large food portion sizes being partly to blame. In 2023, the mean self-reported weight among men in the United States was 199 pounds, while women reported weighing an average of 164 pounds. Which state is the most obese? As of 2022, West Virginia had the highest prevalence of adult obesity in the United States, with around 41 percent of the population considered obese. Following West Virginia, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Mississippi, had some of the highest rates of obesity in the country. Colorado had the lowest share of adults who were obese at that time, but still, a quarter of adults in the state were obese. West Virginia is also the state with the highest prevalence of obesity among high school students, with 27 percent of high schoolers considered obese in 2021. Obesity in childhood is associated with obesity as adults, as well as mental health problems such as anxiety and depression.

This statistic represents the curb weight of North American light vehicles between 2008 and 2020. It is expected that the average North American vehicle is required to weigh 3,735 pounds to meet the 2020 fuel economy standards.

This statistic depicts the average body mass index (BMI) of U.S. females aged 20 years and over from 1999 to 2016, by ethnicity. According to the data, the average female BMI for those that identified as white was 27.6 in 1999-2000 and increased to 29.1 as of 2015-2016.

According to the body mass index (BMI) computed by the source with the weight and height of the respondents, approximately 24 percent of male Brazilian interviewees were considered obese (BMI≥30kg/m2) in 2023, up from 22 percent of the men surveyed two years earlier. This figure was slightly lower than the share of female respondents who were found obese, which reached nearly 25 percent as of 2023.

From 2019 to 2021, obesity among pregnant women in the United States was highest among American Indian and Alaska Native women and Black women. This statistic depicts the percentage of pregnant women in the United States from 2019 to 2021 who were obese, overweight, normal weight, or underweight, by race/ethnicity.

West Virginia, Mississippi, and Arkansas are the U.S. states with the highest percentage of their population who are obese. The states with the lowest percentage of their population who are obese include Colorado, Hawaii, and Massachusetts. Obesity in the United States Obesity is a growing problem in many countries around the world, but the United States has the highest rate of obesity among all OECD countries. The prevalence of obesity in the United States has risen steadily over the previous two decades, with no signs of declining. Obesity in the U.S. is more common among women than men, and overweight and obesity rates are higher among African Americans than any other race or ethnicity. Causes and health impacts Obesity is most commonly the result of a combination of poor diet, overeating, physical inactivity, and a genetic susceptibility. Obesity is associated with various negative health impacts, including an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases, certain types of cancer, and diabetes type 2. As of 2022, around 8.4 percent of the U.S. population had been diagnosed with diabetes. Diabetes is currently the eighth leading cause of death in the United States.