That cat haz many cheeseburgers.

Oh yay Texas. We dropped from 16th to 12th...wait...is that good? I need a cheezeburger...

If you look at the range of all 50 states plus DC, for obese and overweight, 55% to 68%, no one state has much to be proud of.

More pie... ugh...

Apparently being obese has no impact on self-esteem. I have been to the pool this summer...I've seen things that would made my skin crawl...

@suzapalooza:

I have a friend who says that tanned fat looks better than pasty white fat...not only is she wrong...she's also fat...

Wow, Massachusetts is only 48? Jeez, I see more Michelin Men/Women all the time around here.

I don't believe the Obese/Overweight percentages though since they are probably going on BMI stats.

FWIW, I helped the obese category go down here but I just have 20 more lbs before MA drops back to 49!

These statistics still don't mean much. There are many "overweight" people who are actually in pretty good shape. It's just that that way they calculate "overweight" (or even "obese") is flawed.

This cannot be right. Ted Kennedy alone makes Mass #1.

That is one fat cat. I wonder if it lives in Mississippi...

@CaliCheeseSucks:

You are right though. Technically I am overweight, but I also weightlift alot. According to the bmi charts, since I'm 5'6 I should weigh about 165. I'd be rail thin if that were the case. I weight 220 lbs but alot of it is muscle mass. Whoever made those charts needs to build some muscle.

Wouldn't it be more ironic if they had done this in the form of a pie chart?

How does Michigan compete with all those southern-fried states?

@baristabrawl: Oh, too funny. Considering all the southern states top the list, I suppose it would have to be a pecan pie chart.

Mississippi always pwns everyone in obesity statistics, every time I've looked.

Yay, my state is on there! I guess my being all of 100lbs didn't help the ratio.

I'm curious how these statistics were compiled. Where did they get heights and weights of all residents of the states? Or did they just do a phone survey on say, 1000 residents in each state.

Of the top 20, 19 are red states from the 2004 election.

@ClayS:

They correlated with fast food sales. The fast food companies loved the idea of making money by selling statistics...easy as pie?

Quickly looking at some of the other statistics, it seems overweight/obesity is inversely proportional to fruit and vegetable comsumption, which isn't surprising. More surprisingly, overweight/obesity is also inversely proportional to alcohol comsumption. Apparently, if you don't drink alcohol, you instead eat more.

I don't like averages and medians with this stuff. Why? Standard deviations. Here in Alabama, I've also seen a LOT of the skinniest people I've ever seen. And not just the eating disorder types...also some of the fittest people I've ever seen.

Louisiana FTW

@SpecialEd: The south is full of ex-Michiganders, of course.

Or... we've been prosperous so long, that of course we've all become fat. You'll notice that we've improved from number 9 last year to number 10 this year. As our prosperity decreases, so does our obesity.

At first glance, it looks like this roughly corresponds with the list of states with the highest poverty levels and lowest levels of education. Causation/correlation?

@SpecialEd: The answer is that Michigan has a combination of 6-7 months of winter and a decent supply of southern style cuisine. Add them up and you get one fat state.

Plus we are the "car capital". Most people don't believe in public transportation. People in this state don't get a lot of exercise. I have seen people get in there cars to drive 3 blocks to the corner store instead of walking. For the record this paragraph does not apply to me.

@backbroken: Poverty is the big driver. Calorie-dense foods are the cheapest and people on a budget usually buy calorie-dense foods. These foods are usually the least healthy options available, but on a price-per-calorie basis, are 10-50x more economical than eating right.

That's the bottom line here. It's not that people don't know how to eat right--it's economics (and to a degree, tradition. Just go to a Southern family BBQ some time.)

@suzapalooza: You're so right! I see twenty-something girls with spare tires hanging out of their tops, and cottage cheese hanging out of their mini-skirts and they have NO SHAME about it.

I don't know if it's good or bad that these girls think they're sexy regardless of their fat. Part of me says that self-esteem should not come from body image. The other part of me thinks these girls should be embarassed about being so fat so young.

That's why most of the states bordering Miss. have an unofficial motto:

Thank God for Mississippi!

Somebody has to be last.

@Ash78: Also, here in B'ham at least, public transportation is a joke so everyone drives everywhere. We don't have very many areas that have nice sidewalks that are conducive to walking, either. Maybe another reason is that it's so freaking hot here most of the year that no one wants to go out and risk a heat-stroke from exercise. And it's not like poorer folks can afford a gym membership. People in more dangerous neighborhoods probably don't want to out and walk anyhow.

Agree with you about the Southern tradition, though. My grandmother will have us all over for family events and feed us foods she must have fried up in lard. Soooo good.

@MissPeacock: Absolutely most misguided public transit layout ever. Even when I worked downtown, I never saw a bus with more than 5 people on it. And the buses don't really run into the suburbs at all, thanks in part to our having 15 towns crammed together, each with its own mayor and council. Oh, well.

I find it really ironic that most of the neighborhoods with sidewalks are in Mountain Brook 90210. Every morning I drive through there and see tons of people out jogging and walking...because they can afford the "luxury of exercise" (and that's what it is today!)

@Ash78: But we are going to get the Olympics!!! :D :D :D

B'ham News Link

How did Hawaii score 2? I lived there for a while, and there are some HUGE mo-fo's who live there...

I'll have to rub this in my brother's face. I'm in MA and he's in VT, always bugging me that it's "healthier" up there...

@MissPeacock: I had not seen that. Ugh. Maybe he can raise sales tax from 10% to 15% to secure some extra funding.

And maybe we can have the track & field events at the Bham Race Course. All attendees get a bucket of free coins to play the slots at Quincy's 777.

/done ranting on local politics

I think the government needs to put a sin tax on unhealthy food. This would curb all the unhealthy eating and force people to eat right.

MissPeacock: It's my OPINION (based on research by the Weston A. Price people) that lard is not as dangerous as it's portrayed to be. Neither is coconut oil. Or butter.

There's a whole swirl of factors, but animal fat from untreated animals eating untreated foods, minimally processed, is better than a lot of the "healthy" oils they're marketing to us.

I am shocked that Louisiana is ranked 4th. Our food is far superior to anything you could ever find in Mississippi, West Virginia or Alabama. Everyone knows that.

Ask yourself how many McD you see in Colorado and how many there are in Miss. And I think its an ethnic thing- fast food companies have been going after African Americans, and for the most part, fast food will make you blow up, especially with all that salt. BTW check out the Chipotle nutrition calculator- I thought I was eating healthy and now I won't eat there again.

@Bladefist:

That's a terrible idea. As was stated above, many people that eat unhealthy do so because they can't afford to eat healthy. Putting a tax on unhealthy food just makes it harder for them to buy any kind of food.

Woo hoo! Indiana dropped out of the top 10! Must have been my diet over the last year that sealed the deal.

@Bladefist: We know you don't believe that. Stop trolling.

Also, I think all obesity statistics should be presented in the form of pie charts. Mmmmm ... pie.

It doesn't surprise me in the least to see the Southern states in the lead... and frankly I'd be disappointed if we weren't up there. A big, grand family supper is part of our culture, here in Alabama. I know of very few families, black or white, that don't consider big suppers with all of the family to be a thing of tradition.

There aren't just fried foods and BBQ on the table, either... since a lot of us grow our own fruits and especially vegetables, all of the food groups are always on hand and in abundance. The thing that is killing us, literally, is the lack of exercise. In the old days our folks could eat as much as we do because they worked in the fields all day - we drive everywhere and sit behind desks shuffling papers.

I've done my part to get out of the obese category, and I see a lot of people in Tuscaloosa, Alabama making big lifestyle changes, too. Hell, I've lost over 20 pounds in 5 weeks just by cutting out the fast food and running/walking a mile a day.

That steroid laced, processed fast food is the enemy.

@Bladefist: and they need to heavily tax all food producing companies, but looking at the body mass of the american populus, it is obvious that they are having massive profits.

@CaliCheeseSucks: & @cmdrsass:

This site was founded on a heavy sarcasim movment. Sarcasim is not trolling, now attacking the sarcies is trolling however.

@ClayS: That's including just "overweight" people. I'm overweight but I'm not fat. Just got a few extra pounds.

This should be transposed with presidential voting. I'm sure it is a high correlation.

By the way, the argument that healthy food is more expensive is absolutely ridiculous. I've saved hundreds of dollars since cutting out fast food and eating healthy.

Common sense alone should tell you a home-made sandwich and some chips, or a little Tupperware of salad, is cheaper than a double cheeseburger combo. And you save money on gas.

Of course most of the top 10 is in the South.. we fry everything. But we live well into our 80s and 90s too. So keep making fun of us! haha

@AngryEwok: Common sense alone should tell you a home-made sandwich and some chips, or a little Tupperware of salad, is cheaper than a double cheeseburger combo. And you save money on gas.

True. That's how I eat.

But I don't work a physically demanding job where I'm trying to pack in enough calories to get me through the afternoon shift. That's where Hardees comes in.

Unhealthy foods are simply much cheaper per calorie, that's empirical. Breading and/or frying are the simplest ways to add cheap calories to anything.

@AngryEwok: I agree.

I make my own pizza at home, it costs me under $4 a pizza. It's delicious and healthy. You can buy the burgers that are 90/10 meat/fat ratio, that are fairly inexpensive. You can get the baked chips instead of the normal chips. Wheat bread instead of white. Drink water instead of pop. Pasta is so cheap it might as well be free. Salad is cheap.

Eating healthy is my lifestyle, and it's extremely cheap to do. Yes, you will have to get off your butt and cook. But cooking is a pretty enjoyable experience.

I really don't think Obese America cares though. And I don't think they are Obese because they are poor or anything. Maybe lazy. I'm sure its a hard addiction to break, they have gotten in their head that some of the best food has to come from fast food. When all you need is some chicken breast and some marinade, and you can make crazy delicious meal at home for 4 bux.