According to government obesity data reported in a recent issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, from 2005 to 2007, the proportion of adults who were obese (based on self-reported height and weight) increased by 7 percent to a nationwide average of 25.6 percent. Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee weighing in at the top with almost a third of adults obese. The drive to a leaner America is stuck in reverse, according to the government's latest obesity data.

Healthy People 2010, a national health promotion and disease prevention program reported that not one state had reached the obesity prevalence goal of 15 percent, with Colorado the closest at 17.7 percent.

Findings from an analysis of the 2007 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey, an ongoing government sponsored health survey of U.S. adults included 404,300 individuals (155,525 men and 248,775 women). More men than women were found to be obese - 26.4 percent men versus 24.8 percent women, and adults ages 18-29 had the lowest prevalence of obesity (19.1 percent.)

Black adults had the highest obesity occurrence (35.8 percent), with Hispanics following at 28.5% and whites 24.5 percent. Black women had the highest overall prevalence of obesity at 39 percent, and women in the racial/ethnic category of "other" had the lowest at 14.1 percent. Obesity reportedly decreased with increasing levels of education from 29.4 percent in adults with no high school diploma to 20% with a college degree.

Geographically, the South had the most obese adults (27.3%), followed by the Midwest (26.5%), Northeast (24.4%), and West (23.1%).

The authors called for more multidisciplinary, collaborative efforts to improve nutrition and physical activity in schools, workplaces, and individual communities.

The authors of the report state that priority needs to be given to interventions that move beyond increasing individual awareness and provide the environmental and policy changes that support behavior change, particularly laming those with the greatest need.

Individual recommendations include eating more fruits and vegetables, engaging in more physical activity and reducing the consumption of high-calorie foods and sugar-sweetened beverages in order to maintain a healthy weight.

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