Growing Girth: Obesity in America

There's no sign of a slowdown in obesity, with about 26% of U.S. adults being obese in 2008, according to the CDC's latest obesity statistics, which were released today.

But if you take a close look at that figure, you might see a little wiggle room.

The CDC calculated adult obesity rates based on phone interviews with more than 400,000 U.S. adults who gave their height and weight as part of a national health survey in 2008.

Be honest -- if you were called for that survey, how accurate would you be in reporting your stats? Would you fudge it a smidge -- and when was the last time you got on a scale to check?

Even if you know your numbers to the ounce and inch, there's a chance that BMI (body mass index), which relates height to weight, doesn't do you justice.

For instance, BMI doesn't show how much of your weight is muscle, how much is fat, and where that fat is distributed. Having a large waist (over 40 inches for men; over 35 inches for women) may put you at higher risk of type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and heart disease. That's why some health experts like checking waist measurement or waist-to-hip ratio, instead of relying on BMI.

Plus, there is debate about whether weight is really what matters, or whether fitness -- regardless of size -- is more important.

In August 2008, researchers reported that nearly a third of obese people aren't at high risk of diabetes or heart disease. That same study showed that being skinny doesn't mean you're a low risk of those conditions. And in 2007, Italian researchers coined the term "normal-weight obese" to describe people who weren't overweight but had a high percentage of body fat.

But in April 2008, other researchers reported that being physically active doesn't totally make up for being overweight.

Stigma about obesity is also important. Too often, weight gets cast in "good" or "bad" terms, though it's a lot more complex than just personal choices, as experts from Mississippi -- the nation's fattest state -- recently told us.

The CDC's new report isn't about all that. It's a statistical snapshot, the latest in a long line of similar reports.

What do you think it will take for the U.S. to start to curb obesity? How does the term "obesity" make you feel -- especially if you're one of the millions of Americans in that category -- and are your biggest weight challenges about your personal choices, your environment (like whether you can afford healthy food), or how people treat you?

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