WASHINGTON — The South is known for its fine cuisine and delicious barbecue, but a new survey finds it’s also at the center of the nation’s growing obesity epidemic. Researchers have found that many of the country’s most overweight and obese cities are in the southern part of the United States.
WalletHub’s findings (full list below) also paint a concerning picture of health and financial burdens across the nation. With nearly 42 percent of U.S. adults classified as obese, the ramifications extend far beyond individual health, affecting the nation’s economy with obesity-related medical treatments costing around $190.2 billion annually and work absenteeism resulting in approximately $4.3 billion in productivity losses each year.
The study compared 100 of the most populated U.S. metropolitan areas across 19 key metrics, ranging from the percentage of physically inactive adults to future obesity projections and access to healthy foods. This approach sheds light on the cities that are most affected by weight-related issues and underscores the pressing need for public health interventions.
“Obesity is becoming more and more prevalent in the U.S., and it’s costing us big time,” says Cassandra Happe, a WalletHub analyst, in a media release. “In the most overweight and obese cities, residents often lack easy access to healthy food and recreation opportunities, so investing in those areas should help improve people’s diets and exercise regimens, and reduce the financial burden overall.”
The South Leads The Obesity Epidemic
Topping the list, McAllen, Texas is grappling with severe obesity issues, with 45 percent of its adult population classified as obese. This city not only records the highest percentage of obese adults but also significant numbers of overweight children and teenagers. McAllen’s residents face numerous health challenges, including high rates of diabetes and heart disease, exacerbated by a lack of physical activity and limited access to recreational spaces.
Jackson, Mississippi stands as the second-most overweight city, with alarming obesity rates among children and adults alike. The city records the highest percentage of children between 10 and 17 years-old classified as obese. Health complications such as strokes, diabetes, and high blood pressure are prevalent, painting a grim picture of the community’s overall well-being. Contributing factors to this epidemic include insufficient exercise and poor access to nutritious food.
Ranking third, Shreveport Louisiana’s obesity crisis spans across all age groups, with equal percentages of adults being overweight and obese. The city faces significant health concerns, including the highest rate of high blood pressure and a near top ranking in adults with high cholesterol. A major contributing factor to the city’s obesity problem is unhealthy eating habits, coupled with a lack of physical activity and access to healthy food options.
Rounding out the top five of most overweight U.S. cities is Mobile, Alabama, and Little Rock, Arkansas. Not surprisingly, McAllen, Mobile, and Jackson also rank in the top three of the most physically inactive adults in the nation.
On the other end of the spectrum, the survey highlights the least overweight cities in the U.S. as well. The bottom five include San Jose, California; Denver, Colorado; Boston, Massachusetts; Honolulu, Hawaii; and Seattle, Washington.
Most Overweight Cities in the U.S.
Overall Rank | Metro Area | Total Score | Obesity & Overweight Rank | Health Consequences Rank | Food & Fitness Rank |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | McAllen, Texas | 85.54 | 4 | 2 | 2 |
2 | Jackson, Mississippi | 84.58 | 2 | 6 | 8 |
3 | Shreveport, LA | 83.82 | 7 | 4 | 17 |
4 | Mobile, AL | 83.11 | 10 | 7 | 11 |
5 | Little Rock, Arkansas | 82.31 | 5 | 24 | 7 |
6 | Knoxville, Tennessee | 81.71 | 25 | 1 | 18 |
7 | Memphis, Tennessee | 81.65 | 23 | 3 | 4 |
8 | Lafayette, LA | 81.64 | 8 | 25 | 15 |
9 | Baton Rouge, Louisiana | 81.28 | 11 | 5 | 26 |
10 | Chattanooga, Tennessee | 81.15 | 20 | 8 | 13 |
11 | Birmingham, Alabama | 81.02 | 18 | 12 | 3 |
12 | Columbia, South Carolina | 80.06 | 21 | 16 | 10 |
13 | Oklahoma City, Oklahoma | 80.03 | 9 | 31 | 21 |
14 | Tulsa, Oklahoma | 79.64 | 6 | 22 | 36 |
15 | Fayetteville, AR | 79.34 | 14 | 26 | 28 |
16 | Augusta, Georgia | 79.31 | 31 | 13 | 6 |
17 | New Orleans, Louisiana | 78.91 | 13 | 23 | 25 |
18 | Canton, OH | 78.78 | 39 | 10 | 23 |
19 | Wichita, Kansas | 78.39 | 37 | 17 | 12 |
20 | Youngstown, Ohio | 78.23 | 22 | 41 | 16 |
21 | San Antonio, Texas | 78.18 | 1 | 33 | 67 |
22 | Winston, North Carolina | 77.77 | 68 | 11 | 1 |
23 | Fort Wayne, IN | 77.66 | 41 | 18 | 14 |
24 | Greenville, South Carolina | 77.65 | 36 | 34 | 9 |
25 | Dallas, Texas | 77.61 | 12 | 32 | 39 |
26 | Myrtle Beach, SC | 77.47 | 32 | 28 | 24 |
27 | El Paso, Texas | 77.33 | 3 | 64 | 45 |
28 | Louisville, Kentucky | 76.83 | 15 | 14 | 64 |
29 | Charleston, South Carolina | 76.58 | 17 | 57 | 30 |
30 | Greensboro, North Carolina | 76.31 | 62 | 15 | 5 |
31 | Huntsville, AL | 76.22 | 33 | 91 | 20 |
32 | Akron, Ohio | 76.11 | 19 | 60 | 37 |
33 | Toledo, Ohio | 75.94 | 27 | 40 | 31 |
34 | Detroit, Michigan | 75.79 | 58 | 9 | 29 |
35 | Riverside, California | 75.56 | 55 | 19 | 22 |
36 | Albuquerque, New Mexico | 75.54 | 16 | 36 | 52 |
37 | Lexington-Fayette, KY | 75.50 | 30 | 39 | 32 |
38 | Nashville, Tennessee | 75.40 | 28 | 59 | 27 |
39 | Dayton, Ohio | 75.39 | 40 | 45 | 35 |
40 | Columbus, Ohio | 74.62 | 26 | 43 | 51 |
41 | Grand Rapids, Michigan | 74.54 | 42 | 35 | 48 |
42 | Cincinnati, Ohio | 73.78 | 24 | 27 | 82 |
43 | Indianapolis, Indiana | 73.33 | 45 | 48 | 40 |
44 | Scranton, Pennsylvania | 73.17 | 59 | 37 | 41 |
45 | Richmond, Virginia | 73.10 | 70 | 20 | 42 |
46 | Cleveland, Ohio | 73.02 | 34 | 72 | 44 |
47 | Providence, Rhode Island | 73.02 | 48 | 56 | 49 |
48 | Kansas City, Missouri | 72.90 | 44 | 63 | 34 |
49 | Houston, Texas | 72.57 | 29 | 62 | 65 |
50 | Charlotte, North Carolina | 72.57 | 60 | 21 | 56 |
51 | Virginia Beach, Virginia | 72.22 | 57 | 30 | 59 |
52 | Phoenix, Arizona | 71.90 | 49 | 61 | 43 |
53 | Reno, NV | 71.75 | 51 | 47 | 60 |
54 | Omaha, Nebraska | 71.64 | 38 | 67 | 69 |
55 | Des Moines, Iowa | 71.47 | 46 | 86 | 53 |
56 | Hartford, Connecticut | 71.34 | 66 | 53 | 50 |
57 | Las Vegas, Nevada | 71.28 | 50 | 29 | 87 |
58 | Raleigh, North Carolina | 71.16 | 56 | 46 | 62 |
59 | Milwaukee, Wisconsin | 71.07 | 43 | 38 | 81 |
60 | Durham, NC | 70.86 | 74 | 80 | 19 |
61 | Atlanta, Georgia | 70.49 | 47 | 42 | 85 |
62 | Allentown, Pennsylvania | 70.35 | 67 | 77 | 47 |
63 | Baltimore, Maryland | 70.33 | 64 | 54 | 58 |
64 | Asheville, NC | 70.19 | 82 | 50 | 38 |
65 | Anchorage, AK | 69.77 | 63 | 65 | 61 |
66 | Austin, Texas | 69.65 | 35 | 79 | 89 |
67 | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | 69.61 | 52 | 44 | 90 |
68 | New Haven, Connecticut | 69.41 | 71 | 75 | 66 |
69 | St. Louis, Missouri | 69.39 | 54 | 66 | 76 |
70 | Spokane, Washington | 68.60 | 72 | 78 | 57 |
71 | Orlando, Florida | 68.01 | 79 | 49 | 74 |
72 | Tucson, Arizona | 67.50 | 75 | 52 | 84 |
73 | Springfield, Massachusetts | 67.39 | 87 | 69 | 63 |
74 | Los Angeles, California | 66.93 | 73 | 71 | 79 |
75 | Portland, ME | 66.85 | 85 | 81 | 71 |
76 | Tampa, Florida | 66.78 | 69 | 83 | 77 |
77 | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | 66.75 | 65 | 88 | 80 |
78 | Manchester, NH | 66.66 | 92 | 51 | 54 |
79 | San Diego, California | 66.21 | 83 | 58 | 86 |
80 | Bridgeport, Connecticut | 66.01 | 81 | 98 | 73 |
81 | Jacksonville, Florida | 65.84 | 88 | 68 | 72 |
82 | Washington, District of Columbia | 65.56 | 53 | 76 | 98 |
83 | Miami, Florida | 65.48 | 76 | 85 | 83 |
84 | Chicago, Illinois | 65.37 | 61 | 92 | 94 |
85 | Ogden, Utah | 65.24 | 94 | 70 | 46 |
86 | Worcester, Massachusetts | 65.19 | 89 | 95 | 55 |
87 | Sacramento, California | 64.68 | 77 | 82 | 92 |
88 | New York, New York | 64.22 | 79 | 74 | 99 |
89 | Boise, Idaho | 64.17 | 91 | 55 | 78 |
90 | Provo, Utah | 63.75 | 100 | 84 | 33 |
91 | Salt Lake City, Utah | 63.22 | 99 | 73 | 75 |
92 | Portland, Oregon | 62.07 | 78 | 89 | 97 |
93 | San Francisco, California | 62.01 | 86 | 97 | 93 |
94 | Colorado Springs, Colorado | 61.83 | 97 | 94 | 68 |
95 | Minneapolis, Minnesota | 61.65 | 84 | 87 | 96 |
96 | San Jose, California | 60.77 | 90 | 100 | 91 |
97 | Denver, Colorado | 60.57 | 98 | 99 | 70 |
98 | Boston, Massachusetts | 60.55 | 96 | 90 | 88 |
99 | Honolulu, Hawaii | 59.04 | 93 | 93 | 100 |
100 | Seattle, Washington | 58.33 | 95 | 96 | 95 |
Note: With the exception of “Total Score,” all of the columns in the table above depict the relative rank of that metro area, where a rank of 1 represents the worst conditions for that metric category.
Experts are calling on the federal government to enact policies to help battle the obesity epidemic.
“Invest in nutrition education and promoting healthy eating habits in schools, workplaces, and communities,” says Dr. Jeffrey J. Fisher, director of the Allen Foundation Culinary Nutrition Center and associate professor of nutrition and dietetics at Central Michigan University. “Bring back the USDA SuperTracker, an interactive food and physical activity tracking tool. Continue collaborating with the food industry on nutritional labeling to empower consumers to make better food choices. Work with the food industry to encourage the reformulation of products to include more plant-sourced foods.”
Methodology
In order to determine the fattest cities in America, WalletHub compared 100 of the most populated U.S. metro areas across three key dimensions: 1) Obesity & Overweight, 2) Health Consequences and 3) Food & Fitness.
The real Americans that are going to take on the US gubament with da shootin irons…
God help us.
What? Lol
I think you are implying that pro-gun (white?) are the influencing factor for obesity here. However, Whites are the majority race in only 3 of the top 10 cities. If you look at “Obesity in the US” (Wikipedia), socio-economic class and cultural norms are more influential toward affecting obesity than owning a gun. But if you have data to support your supposition, it would be great to see. I like data. Thanks.
Those damn Appalachians….were SECRRET BILLIONAIRES in the 18th century and BOUGHT ALL the blacks fro Africa, those DARN Appalachians…
DON’T be dumber than a democrat…
Hard to believe Denver is ranked among the least obese. Lived here all my life and I see nothing but obese people everywhere I go.
Gee I wonder who wrote this article?
I’m guessing you don’t travel much outside of Denver then. I lived in Kansas City for 30 years (with 4 years in rural MO at university), and now 15 years in Denver, with lots of travels all over the country. Denver (and CO in general) is easily one of the most fit places in the country. You’d pretty much have to go to Europe to find significantly lower levels of obesity than Denver.
Of course that doesn’t mean that no one is obese here, it’s just MUCH less than most of the rest of the country.
LOLOL, of course # 1 was Texas. Guarantee to you that obesity rates and belief in angels track almost perfectly.
I don’t know about Hawaiʻi, dey got some big brudders
IT’s all them chitlins and hominy grits.
Honolulu is deceptive, the Island of Oahu is really obese, but the Hawaiians can’t afford to live in Honolulu so it skews the results.
So when did the Constitution become invalid and we no longer have the right to weigh what we wish?
How exactly did they count these obese people, knock on doors, phone poll, how?
For what its worth, in college I was in world class fitness… Yet according to the BMI (which I’m convinced was conjured up by some little Swiss cyclist) ranked me as technically “Obese” at 6’6″ 250lbs…
Obesity is sort of like pornogrophy.
It can be difficult to define, but you know it when you see it.
Yea, I’m 6’6″ around 250lbs as well, BMI does not take into account muscle mass to fat ratio
The bigger they are The more people their bodies Will feed In FEMA camps.
Hey, we can call ourselves Winston… but for the rest of you it’s Winston-Salem.
(I hope our poor ranking discourages people from moving here. It’s a terrible place to live. You’d hate it.)
I call BS on all this. I, too, am 6’6″ and a solid 250 but still considered obese. I have to be down to 216 before I’m normal. That’s insane.
The biggest take away is: Seed oils and corn syrup disproportionately damages Latinos and blacks. The obesity stats closely follows the race stats.
My observation is Asians and Whites are more likely to be aware of the dangers of seed oil and HFCS and consume much less of it or those ingredients damage differently based on genetics or both.
The only reason we have an obesity problem is because the processed food industry poisons their customers and governments are bribed and blackmailed to let it continue.
It is not just seed oils and corn syrup, it is all GMO and processed foods not to mention all the hormones pumped into livestock
TRUMP WON!!!
WalletHub is always coming up with these nonsense list of things to bash southern cities.
Many cases of obesity and other health issues I believe can be attributed to the type of industries which in the past, and or are now, in southern states. Many which have polluted the environment and the people who have lived in such areas for generations. I remember as a kid reading signs at the lake or river. Dont eat the fish, dont swim in the water. Sometimes you could smell the chemicals and knew without the signs.
So sad! Part of the “kill-steal-destroy” plan against humankind. It’s like, why would 40% of a well informed population choose to participate? The allurement of excess. For me? No weapon formed against me will prosper.
The South has the best food.
CA suffers from the long term migrant crisis with huge families with the parents and 8 kids all massive round balls strolling down main street. It’s a site to see. Imagine the welfare and healthcare costs from diabetes, etc.
HaHa, nice try…lived there for 25 years…what a great city and perfect for raising kids… absolute worst city of all for Food and Fitness? I doubt it.