According to David Katz, MD, Director of the Yale University Prevention Research Center, “There are many efforts to combat obesity, but… We do much more across the expanse of our culture, to foster obesity, than to defend against it.” New statistics from 2011 to 2014 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention support his belief.
The National Center for Health Statistics analyzed information from over 19,000 Americans and this is what they found.
The average weight for men rose from 181 pounds to 196 pounds but the average height did not change from 5 feet 9 inches.
The average weight for women rose from 152 pounds to 169 pounds, but the average woman’s height stayed at 5 feet 4 inches.
Even kids are not immune to this steady weight gain. Eleven year old girls are 7 pounds heavier than 20 years ago but they stayed at the same average height. Boys, on average, have grown a half inch but at the same time packed on 13.5 extra pounds.
Though the reasons behind this weight gain are complex, the outcome of the extra weight is the same. The US population will be facing an increase in chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes and heart disease in the coming years.
