Despite the buzz about the increasing obesity epidemic, Americans may have stopped getting fatter. According to a study in the January 2012 issue of Journal of the American Medical Association, rates of obesity in the US have leveled off. In 2007-2008, researchers gathered the height and weight measurements of 5,555 adult men and women over the age of 20 and then compared them to that of the government collected national dataset, the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), from 1999-2006.
They found that 68 percent of the people they examined (72.3% of the men and 64.1% of the women) were classified as overweight or obese in 2007-08. When they looked at just obesity, the overall prevalence was 32.2 percent, with 35.5 percent of men and 35.8 percent of women, being obese. While the rates of overweight and obesity continue to be high, the rates did not differ significantly from the rates in the 1999-2006, particularly for women, but possibly for men.
The mean BMI has been increasing in the US since the Civil War, but it dramatically increased in the 1980s and 1990s. Researchers stated that their findings may suggest the prevalence may have entered a period of stability, but also noted that future changes could not be ruled out.
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