VAST MAJORITY OF AMERICANS LIKELY TO BECOME FAT

 

A new study that followed Americans for three decades suggests that over the long haul, 9 out of 10 men and 7 out of 10 women will become overweight.

"You cannot become complacent, because you are at risk of becoming overweight," said Ramachandran Vanan, an associate professor of medicine at Boston University and the study's lead author. He and other researchers studied data gathered from 4,117 white adults over 30 years. Participants were all normal weight at the beginning of the study and between the ages of 30 and 59 at the start, and were examined every four years. Within 4 years, 20% of the women and 25% of the men had become overweight. Within 30 years, half of the participants had become overweight. and one third of the women and one fourth of the men had become obese.

"The findings, published Tuesday in the Annals of Internal Medicine, show obesity may be a greater problem than indicated by studies that look at a cross-section of the population at one point in time. Those so called 'snapshots' of obesity have found about 6 in 10 are overweight and about 1 in 3 are obese", Vasan said.

"The findings also re-emphasize that people must continually watch their weight", Vasan said.

Susan Bartlett, an associate professor of medicine and an obesity researcher at John Hopkins School of Medicine, said "The study was one of the first to look at the risk of becoming overweight. While health risks of being obese are much more severe than being overweight, those who are overweight are much more likely to go on to become obese."

For the complete article, visit MSNBC.com

For the complete research information and data, go the the Annals of Internal Medicine and see, Estimated Risks for Developing Obesity in the Framington Heart Study

---

Contact John Tamiazzo by emailing him at jtamiazzo@msn.com
Last modified: 10/8/05