Where Is Idaho On The list Of Most Overweight States

Stress eating this, stress eating that... you hear it on the regular now. I'm stress eating due to the election. I'm stress eating due to COVID-19. Thanksgiving and the holidays are coming up and that will be another excuse to overeat. The list of excuses as to why America overeats gets longer everyday and we continue to become more overweight.  This is scary but puts things into perspective, according to a WalletHub study:

"The U.S. weight loss and diet control market is worth at least $72 billion, and is projected to increase in the coming years. In addition, the U.S. spends nearly $200 billion in annual health care costs related to obesity."

How does the state famous for potatoes fare in this country wide downward spiral? I was surprised and frankly impressed at the ranking that our great state earned. See the full list of "fattest" states below and how WalletHub arrived at these results.

Methodology

"In order to determine the fattest states in America, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across three key dimensions: 1) Obesity & Overweight Prevalence, 2) Health Consequences and 3) Food & Fitness.

We evaluated those dimensions using 31 relevant metrics, which are listed below with their corresponding weights. Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the fattest state. For metrics marked with an asterisk (*), we calculated the population size using the square root of the population in order to avoid overcompensating for minor differences across states.

Finally, we determined each state and the District’s weighted average across all metrics to calculate its overall score and used the resulting scores to rank-order the states."