While there are signs that Americans in general are slimming down, the number of people who are considered extremely obese – more than 100 pounds overweight – is increasing.
In 1994, 2.8 percent of Americans were extremely obese. By 2010 that figure had more than doubled to 6.3 percent, USA Today reports.
Meanwhile, obesity rates overall have leveled off in the last couple years, going from 35.7 percent in 2010 to 34.9 percent in 2012.
Obesity is defined as being 35 pounds over a healthy weight.
“Americans seem to have woken up to the fact that we’ve got a problem, and the leveling off in obesity rates is a very good thing,” says obesity researcher Donna Ryan of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge. “But there is still lots of hard work to do to get people to healthier weights.”
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