WASHINGTON — Americans are getting heavier than ever, with more than 26 percent of the population now fully obese, the federal government reported yesterday.
Despite warnings that the population must stop layering on the fat and frightening statistics that show two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese, the weight trend continues, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.
“The proportion of US adults who are obese increased to 26.1 percent in 2008 compared to 25.6 percent in 2007,” the CDC said in a statement.
“If this trend continues we will likely see increases in health-care costs for obesity-related diseases,” said the CDC’s Liping Pan, who headed the study.
Last week, the Trust for America’s Health and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation released a similar report showing residents of 23 states are fatter now than they were a year ago.