Study Confirms Americans Are Fatter and Taller Now Than in the 1960s

WASHINGTON – Americans are getting a little taller and a lot fatter. Adults are roughly an inch taller than they were in the early 1960s, on average, and nearly 25 pounds heavier, the government reported yesterday.The nation’s expanding waistline has been well documented, though yesterday’s report is the first to quantify it based on how many pounds the average person is carrying.The reasons are no surprise: more fast food, more television, and less walking around the neighborhood, to name a few. Earlier this year, researchers reported that obesity fueled by poor diet and lack of activity threatens to overtake tobacco use as the leading preventable cause of death.In 1960-62, the average man weighed 166.3 pounds. By 1999-2002, the average had reached 191 pounds, according to the National Center for Health Statistics – part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – which issued the report. Similarly, the report said, the average woman’s weight rose from 140.2 pounds to 164.3 pounds.The trends are the same for children, the report said: Average 10-year-olds weighed about 11 pounds more in 1999-2002 than they did 40 years ago. So expect the next generation of adults to be even heavier than they are today, said Dr. Samuel Klein, director of the Center for Human Nutrition at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.“All the kids who are obese now will become obese adults,” Dr. Klein said. “What will happen with the next generation of adults is really scary.”Obesity can increase the likelihood of diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and other health problems.The report also documented an increase in weight when measured by body mass index, a scale that takes into account both height and weight. Average BMI for adults, ages 20 to 74, has increased from about 25 to 28 over the 40-year span.Anyone with a BMI of 25 and up is considered overweight, and those with BMIs of 30 or more are considered obese.At the same time, though much less dramatically, Americans are getting a little bit taller.Men’s average height increased from 5 feet 8 inches in the early 1960s to 5 feet 9 1 /2 inches in 1999-2002.The average height of a woman, meanwhile, went from just over 5 feet 3 inches to 5 feet 4 inches.The height trends begin in childhood and are evident through adolescence and into adulthood, said the report’s author, Cynthia Ogden, an epidemiologist at the National Center for Health Statistics. Taller children grow up to be taller adults.Height, while determined largely by genetics, is also influenced by childhood nutrition. Adults in the early 1960s grew up during tougher times when they may not have had enough to eat, Dr. Klein said.“Things were not so plentiful here,” he said. In recent years, there have been “very few starving kids.” On the contrary, many are being overfed.The weight gain trend is typically reported as what portion of all children or all adults are overweight. Those numbers are also alarming. In 1999-2002, 31% of adults had a BMI of 30 or over, considered obese. That’s more than double the rate in the early ’60s.About two in three adults in 1999-2002 were considered overweight.The explanations are numerous. Among them:* Portions have gotten bigger, and people go out to eat more.* Junk food that stays fresh for a long time is more readily available.* Adults and children watch more television and spend more hours in front of a computer than ever before.* At work, people are more likely to stare at a computer screen than do something physical.* Even if someone wants to walk to a store, it’s not always possible.* Fear of crime in some neighborhoods keeps both children and adults inside.

Study Confirms Americans Are Fatter and Taller Now Than in the 1960s

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