More Women Than Men Are Obese In America, And Gap Is Widening

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has crunched new numbers on America's obesity epidemic. What do they tell us? As a nation, we seem to be stuck.

The overall prevalence of obesity in the three-year period ending 2014 was just over 36 percent. This mean that about 1 in 3 adults in the U.S. is obese.

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The prevalence of obesity among women in their 40s and 50s has risen to 42 percent since 1999-2000. That's higher than the 38 percent the CDC found for middle-aged men. Across all adult age groups, about 38 percent of women are obese, while 34 percent of men were obese.

Study author and CDC epidemiologist Cynthia Ogden says these gender differences are a new development. "This hasn't been the case for some years," Ogden says.

And, the divide becomes even greater for some women of color. The obesity rate among African-American women is 57 percent and 46 percent among Hispanic women.

"The biggest problem is that the obesity rates among low-income Americans and minorities are not improving," says obesity expert Barry Popkin of the University of North Carolina.

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