Which State Is The Most Obese? (Certainly Not California!)

Image: obesity rates by state. Source: CDC

By MARC TORRENCE (Patch)

The Centers For Disease Control and Prevention has released the latest data on nationwide adult obesity, and, not surprisingly, a bunch of people out there could stand to eat less or exercise more — and probably a bit of both.

As you would expect, California is one of the Top 5 skinniest states. Only Colorado, Hawaii, Massachusetts and Washington, D.C. beat us.

The state with the highest rate of obesity was Arkansas at 35.9 percent. Colorado had the lowest rate with 21.3 percent.

The CDC defines obesity based on Body Mass Index, which is a person’s mass in kilograms divided by the square of his or her height in meters.

A person with a BMI of 30 or higher is considered obese.

So, for example, someone who is 5-foot-9 and 203 pounds would fall under that definition. If you want to calculate your own BMI, use the CDC’s handy calculator below:

Nationwide, 34.9 percent of adults and 17 percent of children 19 years and younger are obese, according to the CDC’s latest data.

Regionally, Midwesterners were the most obese in terms of population, with 30.7 percent, followed closely by the South at 30.6. The Northeast (27.3) and West (25.7) had the lowest rates.

While every state in the country reported at least a 20 percent obesity rate, five states and the District of Columbia were below 25 percent, with California Hawaii, Massachusetts and Vermont joining Colorado in that distinction.

The results were also broken out by race for the second time since the survey began.

Non-Hispanic blacks had the highest obesity rate at 38.1 percent, followed by Hispanics (31.3%) and non-Hispanic whites (27.1%).

You can read the full results from the obesity survey, which was released Monday, here.

See where each state and its obesity rate ranks in the list below:

1. Arkansas, 35.9
2. West Virginia, 35.7
3. Mississippi, 35.5
4. Louisiana, 34.9
5. Alabama, 33.5
6. Oklahoma, 33
7. Indiana, 32.7
8. Ohio, 32.6
9. North Dakota, 32.2
10. South Carolina, 32.1
11. Texas, 31.9
12. Kentucky, 31.6
13. Kansas, 31.3
14. Tennessee, 31.2
15. Wisconsin, 31.2
16. Iowa, 30.9
17. Delaware, 30.7
18. Michigan, 30.7
19. Georgia, 30.5
20. Missouri, 30.2
21. Nebraska, 30.2
22. Pennsylvania, 30.2
23. South Dakota, 29.8
24. Alaska, 29.7
25. North Carolina, 29.7
26. Maryland, 29.6
27. Wyoming, 29.5
28. Illinois, 29.3
29. Arizona, 28.9
30. Idaho, 28.9
31. Virginia, 28.5
32. New Mexico, 28.4
33. Puerto Rico, 28.3
34. Maine, 28.2
35. Guam, 28
36. Oregon, 27.9
37. Nevada, 27.7
38. Minnesota, 27.6
39. New Hampshire, 27.4
40. Washington, 27.3
41. New York, 27
42. Rhode Island, 27
43. New Jersey, 26.9
44. Montana, 26.4
45. Connecticut, 26.3
46. Florida, 26.2
47. Utah, 25.7
48. Vermont, 24.8
49. California, 24.7
50. Massachusetts, 23.3
51. Hawaii, 22.1
52. District of Columbia, 21.7
53. Colorado, 21.3

The phone survey was conducted in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam by the The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, a “system of health-related telephone surveys that collect state data about U.S. residents regarding their health-related risk behaviors,” according to the CDC’s website.