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LiveScience
Our nation's cities appear to be fat, according to a new Gallup-Healthways poll, which found that at least 15 percent of residents in 187 of the 190 metro areas surveyed are obese.
Boulder, Colo., came out on top as the skinniest city, with just 12.1 percent of residents considered obese, while the number of obese in the fattest metro area, McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, Texas, soared to 38.8 percent. The state of Colorado snagged the top spot as the skinniest state in Gallup's 2011 survey of U.S. states.
The only three metro areas with obesity rates at or below 15 percent were Boulder, Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, Conn., and Fort Collins-Loveland, Colo. These would be the only cities meeting the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention goal of a 15 percent obesity rate in the United States.
The results come from the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index and are based on interviews with more than 350,000 American adults between Jan. 2 and Dec. 29, 2011. Participants reported their height and weight, which was used to calculate body mass index, or BMI, a measure of a person's fatness. BMI scores of 30 or greater are considered obese. (For example, a 5-foot-4-inch woman who weighs 174 pounds or more, or a 5-foot-10-inch man who weighs 209 pounds or more would have a BMI of 30.)
The metro areas are based on the U.S. Office of Management and Budget's metropolitan statistical areas, which in many cases include more than one city. For instance, the San Jose, Calif., statistical area also includes the smaller nearby cities of Sunnyvale and Santa Clara.
Top 10 most obese metro areas (with percent of residents considered obese):
- McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, Texas: 38.8 percent
- Binghamton, N.Y.: 37.6
- Huntington-Ashland, W. Va., Ky., Ohio: 36.0
- Rockford, Ill.: 35.5
- Beaumont-Port Arthur, Texas: 33.8
- Charleston, W. Va.: 33.8
- Lakeland-Winter Haven, Fla.: 33.5
- Topeka, Kans.: 33.3
- Kennewick-Pasco-Richland, Wash.: 33.2
- Reading, Penn.: 32.7
(See full list of cities' obesity rates)
10 least obese metro areas:
- Boulder, Colo.: 12.1 percent
- Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, Conn.: 14.5
- Fort Collins-Loveland, Colo.: 14.6
- Barnstable Town, Mass.: 15.9
- Santa Barbara-Santa Maria-Goleta, Calif.: 16.4
- Naples-Marco Island, Fla.: 16.5
- Trenton-Ewing, N.J.: 16.8
- Provo-Orem, Utah: 17.1
- Colorado Springs, Colo.: 17.4
- San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, Calif.: 17.5
The nation's average obesity rate has held steady at about 26 percent in 2011, while the average for the 10 most obese metro areas was 34.8 percent, compared with an average of 15.9 percent for the least obese metro areas surveyed.
Adult obesity rates were higher than 15 percent in all but three of the 190 metropolitan areas that Gallup and Healthways surveyed in 2011. McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, Texas, residents were the most likely to be obese, at 38.8 percent, while people living in Boulder, Colo., were the least likely, at 12.1 percent.
Supporting an abundance of research linking obesity with a long list of health ailments, those living in the 10 most obese areas were much more likely, compared with the skinniest cities, to report chronic diseases, including diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and depression, at some point in their lives. For instance, compared with people living in the lowest-obesity cities, residents of the most obese areas were 70 percent more likely to report diabetes, 58 percent more likely to have had a heart attack, 30 percent more likely to report a diagnosis of depression, and 23 percent more likely to report high cholesterol, Gallup noted. [ Infographic: Diabetes & Obesity in US ]
Obesity not only plagues the individual, it can also drain Americans' wallets, with the National Institutes of Health estimating the average incremental health-care cost for an obese person is $1,429 every year. With that number, Gallup estimates that in the 10 metro areas with the highest obesity rates, Americans cumulatively pay about $1 billion more in annual health-care costs than if those states had obesity rates of 15 percent.
For example, the McAllen-Edinburg-Mission metro area pays more than $400 million in unnecessary health-care costs each year because of its high obesity rate. If it reduced the obesity rate to 15 percent, the area could potentially save more than $250 million annually, Gallup estimates.
The bottom line, according to Gallup officials, is a grim one: "Even in metro areas that consistently post among the lowest obesity rates in the nation, such as Boulder and Fort Collins-Loveland, at least one in eight residents are still obese," they write on their website. "The health and economic burden of the chronic conditions resulting from obesity is very real and very significant."
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I guess everything is bigger in Texas.
Congratulations on your accomplishment.
Not surprising that most of the fattest are in red states. They seem to just sit at home eating and watching Fox News eventually causing irreparable death of the ability to reason. Fat and stupid is no way to go through life.
The red states are ballooning the cost of health care too as they have more health problems causing the blue states to basically fund the red states obesity related health problems.
Sandy, I honestly hope that your comment was "tongue in cheek" and not getting down to the level of the Fox "news" devotees.
@FreeThinker, damn!! You beat me to that comment lol!
Dont ever come to Texas freethinker so we don't have to show you how good our food is here.
MMMHMM, Tex-Mex, Chicken Fried Steak, and BBQ, Love me some Texas Grub.
You bet!
We have to start saying no to those scrumptious and glorious burritos, and really put a halt to those fantastic orchata drinks to swallow them down.
Not to mention the three-donut desert afterwards, and then three or four hours of tv soap operas...Wake up you guys, it was not like that back home!!
Stop paying so much attention to the fast food commercials!
Darn it!!
Isn't it amazing that Colorado has three of the top skinny cities in the country?
Colorado is by far the healthiest state by a wide margin as it's citizens are more active physically in sports, outdoors, fitness, etc.
Like John Denver said--Colorado Rocky Mountain high!
http://www.mapmyfitness.com/intel/fittest_of_the_fit/
Massachusetts beats Colorado :)
And hey look at that, Minneapolis #2 fittest city in the nation. \m/
I can understand why Colorado is so skinny - the food there sucks! But hey, it's a hell of a diet plan.
That's cause they have that good Coors beer>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>UMMMMMMM!!!
I live in Colorado, it's true there aren't as many overweight people. Probably because we have tons of outdoor stuff to do (on account that there really isn't anything else to do otherwise). That and everyone around you here is really skinny so it kind of has a peer pressure effect. As for food, I agree with a poster above it does suck, except Fargo's Pizza ;).
The food here does not suck, maybe you just don't know how to eat or prepare food so that it tastes good.
We must be pretty damn active then, to compensate for all the microbreweries and pot shops on every other corner.
I love it....We rock....Gosh, Colorado is the place to live....I agree with Isis, guess some folks just don't know what tastes good or how to fix it....Hiking, walking and just getting outside to enjoy what surrounds us is fantastic.......
In my experiance, skinny doesn't not always equal healthy. I'd rather see a study on the top healthy/unhealthy cities.
Without going into specifics, I also want to point out that there several fairly obvious demographic differences between the top and bottom 10 (I'll let you figure those out). Do these demographic profiles drive the higher obseity rate?
no, skinny doesnt always = healthy
I dont think anyone said it did.
but this feels more like the "im not fat, im just big boned" approach...
I wonder if my obese friends who's only health problem is sleep apenea thinks she's healthy too...something tells me she does
except, she could die any night...thats not healthy.
no one said anything about the "healthiest" vs "unhealthiest" cities. It's about obesity. Read the article again.
And on the demographics, I assume you are implying there are more minorities in the obese cities. Does it matter? Does that make it less important or worrisome?
Ever been to McAllen, TX? It's so hot there that the only thing people do is sit indoors with the air conditioning running and eat. The food, by the way, is outstanding.
You nailed it! Hotter than hell and nobody want's to leave their house. 100° at noon, 95° at midnight.
ugh. that sounds awful.
Guys I live in Denver Colorado and trust me, we have our fair share of fatties.
It's all relevant, iceveiled. That's the scary thing: even in the slimmest cities in this country, obesity is still very prevalent. You don't realize how fat the U.S. is until you go abroad, then come back. I was in Europe a couple years ago and was getting used to seeing nothing but slim people. Then I flew back, got off the plane in New York and, upon seeing the many plus-sized people lumbering around, it suddenly hit me. OMG!!!
Oops. I meant to say it's all "relative."
The city is ALWAYS in Texas...they do everything big, even food !
I openly mock and discriminate against overweight individuals. I make my children understand that obese people can not be role models or even considered as such. Serious character flaws.
Guantanmo, you are what I call a comment troll. Your values preached above are closed minded. I carry about 30-40 more lbs than I need to right now. Why? Not because I have character flaws, but because I am not active like I used to be. I turn 40 this year and have 3 kids of my own, their activities, a full time job, and my own small business. I volunteer, coach my son's t-ball team, and as a result, I don't get the sleep I need nor do I make working out a priority because other things are. My weight is also stress related from having lived with the aftermath of hurricane Ike and the 10 months it took us to get back in our home. Yes, if I'm not healthy then I can't help anyone. But to lump a discriminatory statement together like you did, and then to teach that as a value to your children, man, I feel for them and how they will treat others. You may think being overweight is a character flaw, but I bet my life I could and would work circles around your closed minded, discriminating character.
Must be a slow news day. Well, at least there was no news in this article, just BS to waste the time.
Okay...Here is my extrapolation from the article's salient points . What I'm getting from this report (and I fully concur) is that liberals are more health conscious than conservatives?..Politics notwithstanding, any way you slice and dice the facts, red states are more likely to be a more cost centers on health insurers relative to blue states....they complain about michelle obama's health conscious diet initiatives or smoking bans in the name of "freedom", but don't wanna address the fact that in a lifetime they are more likely to be a net cost to insurance companies that Dems. They laugh about"San Francisco Liberals" that ride bicycles in without ever considering the health upside. This is just one of many ironies and contradictions about the "fiscally conservative" GOP..Just like they believe that life begins at conception (2 cells) and ends at birth (they dont want to spend a penny on a baby as of the day it's born....Not until maybe 18 years later when they need them to join the military....then they will sign blank checks...They are so phony in a Machiavellian way...I'm just surprised why "Mitt the Superhawk" has 5 sons but none has EVER joined the military .Did daddy mitt advise against it?..This should be a debate question in the fall...it will expose a lot...The Kennedys sent 2 sons to war ( Joe Jr. died and JFK survived)...why have they never ever considered a military career?..The wanswer is they want poor people to also do their fighting for them, those cowards... Go Dems..Don't stop jogging cycling.. But beware of G.O.P warmongering chickenhawks
You're really off your rocker with that kind of thought process.
Colorado got first place in the skinny category because all they have to eat there is snow and communion crackers. No jobs=no chili-cheese fries.
That's not true. I make chili cheese fries at home. Just because somebody lives in Colorado, does NOT mean that they eat crappy food...what a disgusting generalization...I've seen it twice in a row now.
you want to see fat people....come to York,PA.....
I know what we need to do. It's obvious, isn't it? We need the government to step in and make sure we eat right. We could do that by regulating industry and creating a permit system to make and distribute food. We could create committees that monitor the health of individuals in the country and mandate public and private institutions to comply with our academically defined and scientifically verified healthy eating standards or be disallowed to make or distribute things we deem unhealthy. We need to saturate the media market so that peer pressure ensures people understand the their over eating and expectation of food is gluttonous and immoral. Ya, that's it! While we openly and with a smirk reject the ideas of outdated irrelevant religious moral standards we can replace them with moral equivalence taught by the state. Yes. I can see it now. A perfect Utopia. One much like my relatives in the former Soviet Union have experienced for decades. The proof is in the pudding--they're all skinny. Ahhh, moral skinny outrage. Ya, I think that's a perfect solution, unless of course you enjoy the freedom of a Constitutional Republic--[disclaimer--I'm a healthy, ideal weight, exercise fan, who is opposed to heart disease and colon cancer].
Adam
Must be all of those incredibly fattening taco salads.
You are what you eat......Come on now lets quit liying to ourselvs, your fat because you eat more than you need. Phsyco or not, too many calories not enought running, if you can't run than walk. Dr say walking is the best thing for you. Do more push aways from the table and youl have to do less pushups at the gem. Its so simple don't lie to your self and eat healthy. If you don't know how to eat healthy google it stupid yourn probley at the comp. right now anyway. DH
Kennewick, Pasco, Richland WA is on the obese list because our largest employer in the area is known as the "Lazy H Ranch"
I love me some chubby dudes here in Texas.
Topeka Kansas! hahahahhah That's all that town is made up of are restaurants! And as stated above, Republicans! LMAO!!!!!
I'd like to see the obesity rates with a side-by-side income-per-capita rating. Off the top of my head, the skinnier cities also tend to be wealthier.
I noticed most of the skinny cities were fairly well off and the obese cities were not as rich. I don't think that's just a coincidence. As if poor people working two jobs or unemployed and not finding work, fighting to keep their house, don't have enough to worry about. Now they can worry that they'll be considered bad people because they're fat. Gimme a break. Like access to expensive food, good healthcare, and safe ,walkable neighborhoods, and gym memberships have nothing to do with it.
my guess was houston
...and why?
The fattest cities in Texas are down in South Texas, where all the Mexicans are. That's why they are fat down there, eating all that greasy mexican food.
There are Mexicans all over Texas... but you might as well be in Mexico if you're in McAllen. True... even thought the Tex-Mex is good down here... its not so good for you.
If measuring waist lines the winner may be Texas, if measuring heads DC has it hands down.
LOL.... Nice! Don't forget about how fat their wallets are with our money.
The red states? LOL!!! Have you seen the first Lady's giant ass?
when i was a child my mother passed away and we lost the house in ohio and moved down here to Tennessee to start over. at age 14 a bus came through the mobile home park i lived in. on the side of the bus it said poverty tour. i haven't liked people from up north since, even though i am from there. especially the bigger cities. laughing at poor people doesn't make you better than them. laughing at poor southerners doesn't make you better than them. after i got my degree i started work for a telecom company. sitting here now. the day is slow. you know, i still have problems dealing with northerners when i get a call from a test center or one of the business units.
do you northerners still do the poverty tours? plenty of poverty up north for you to see now :))....enjoy your decimated economy and minimum wage jobs losers.