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A private report released this week says just over a quarter of Wisconsin residents are considered obese, placing the state 25th in the nation.
The fattest state is Mississippi, where almost 32 percent of residents are considered obese, according to the report released Tuesday. Colorado residents are the leanest, with an obesity rate of 18 percent.
The report was compiled by the groups Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which calculated obesity rates by averaging three years of data.
Based on the report’s measures, adult obesity rates rose in 37 states in the past year. No state saw a decrease despite campaigns promoting exercise and good nutrition.
The report also suggested a link between obesity and poverty, as seven of the 10 states with the highest obesity rates are also in the top 10 for highest poverty rates.
Mississippi is followed in chubbiness by West Virginia, Alabama, Louisiana and South Carolina.
The groups relied on the body mass index, a ratio between height and weight, to diagnose obesity. But there has been growing debate about whether that method leads to an accurate diagnosis, since it doesn’t distinguish between fat and lean tissue. The limits of that method were highlighted a few years ago when it was reported that the system would put nearly half of NBA players in the overweight category.
A recent study suggests a better measure of health is waist size, not weight. Researchers discovered that a surprising number of overweight people — about half — have normal blood pressure and cholesterol levels, while an equally startling number of trim people — about a fourth — suffer from some of the ills associated with obesity.
