A few statistics about being overweight

The media and fashion worlds are forever telling us that it is great to be skinny and that the supermodel look is the perfect look however in reality very few people have a body that resembles the body of a supermodel. Nevertheless, millions of people turn to diets and other weight loss programs each year in the hope of achieving their ideal figure and losing a few pounds. Unfortunately however, even more people decide not to diet and continue living their lives as overweight or even obese individuals. Below are a few statistics about the people of America and how they stand with regards to being overweight, weight loss and dieting. 

 

·         Around 50 million Americans will start a diet this year and many of them will succeed in losing weight however only 5% of these people will manage to keep the weight from piling back on in the following 12-24 months and around 90% will put on more weight than they originally lost.

·         Of the 50 million American dieters, only around 8 million will join a genuine weight loss program. The other 42 million will try to lose weight on their own with no medical or professional supervision.

·         There are thought to be around 30,000 diet plans available to the US population.

·         American citizens spend an estimated $30 billion each year on diet programs, products, drinks and foods. Most dieters will try up to 4 different diet plans before they settle on one which they feel they can follow.

·         Approximately one third of all Americans are considered to be over weight and of these individuals around 30% are clinically obese.

·         40% of men and 28.5% of women are overweight which means that less than half of the entire population of the US is within the healthy weight range.

·         Approximately 19% of children aged 6-11 years and 17.5% of children aged 12-19 years are also considered to be overweight. Even more shocking is that around 35% of children that aren’t considered overweight are high risk for becoming overweight during adulthood i.e. they are close to the dividing line between healthy weight and overweight.

·         The total cost (direct costs such as physicians visits, treatments, hospital stays etc. plus indirect costs such as lost wages and loss of potential future earnings because of premature death) of overweight and obesity in America is estimated at $130 billion per year. Direct costs account for around $70 billion of this total which is nearly 10% of the total US health expenditures for a year.  

·         Only one quarter of American adults perform some form of physical exercise for the recommended period of time i.e. 30 minutes three times per week, however nearly 60% perform no physical exercise at all during a normal week.