Americans got fatter between 1999-2000 and 2015-2016

[ucbalumnus]

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr122-508.pdf

Age-adjusted mean waistline increased from 39.0" to 40.0" for men and 36.3" to 38.2" for women. In contrast, age-adjusted mean height stayed the same at 69.2" for men and decreased slightly from 63.8" to 63.7" for women.

[STEM2017]

Bigger is better, right?

[sushiritto]

Estimates of mean BMI for adult men and women aged 20 and over from 1999–2000 through 2015–2016 are presented in Table 7. In 2015–2016, age-adjusted mean BMI was 29.1 in men and 29.6 in women, up from 27.8 in men and 28.2 in women during 1999–2000.

[sabaray]

This short piece from the AP that appeared in the NYT had a few interesting points.

https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/12/20/health/ap-us-med-us-heights-weights.html

The average U.S. adult is overweight and just a few pounds from obese, thanks to average weight increases in all groups — but particularly whites and Hispanics. Overall, the average height for men actually fell very slightly over the past decade. There was no change for women.

One factor may be the shift in the country’s population. There’s a growing number of Mexican-Americans, and that group tends to be a little shorter, said one of the report’s authors, Cynthia Ogden of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

—In the last decade, the average weight of men rose about 2 pounds, to 198. For women, it rose 6 pounds, to nearly 171.

—Men have 40-inch waistlines, on average. Women’s waistlines are a little under 39 inches.

Yikes.

[eastcoascrazy]

Well, I feel absolutely fabulous!

I’ve always considered myself to be average. Average height, average weight…5’5"… But I am thrilled to find out I am WAY below average weight!

Woo hoo!

[MaineLonghorn]

The difference is stark when I look at photos of my high school classmates compared to kids today. Whoa.

[TatinG]

I’m not surprised about the weight stats. But I was surprised at how short the average woman was.

[ucbalumnus]

https://qz.com/1002707/bmi-calculators-arent-accurate-but-our-body-fat-calculator-is/ suggests that waist / height is a better measure of obesity and health risk than weight or BMI.

The mean waist / mean height is 57.8% for men and 59.9% for women, both higher than the healthy limits suggested in the article (0.53 for men and 0.54 for women in one study, 0.50 for all in another). To stay within the limits, the mean height man would need to have a waist under 36.7" or 34.6" (0.53 or 0.50 times 69.2"), while the mean height woman would need to have a waist under 34.4" or 31.9" (0.54 or 0.50 times 63.7").