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."

Overall Rank
(1 = Fattest)
 
StateTotal Score ‘Obesity & Overweight Prevalence’ Rank ‘Health Consequences’ Rank ‘Food & Fitness’ Rank 
1West Virginia74.66219
2Mississippi74.20181
3Arkansas69.373117
4Kentucky68.46572
5Tennessee68.414911
6South Carolina65.858174
7Louisiana65.656276
8Alabama65.159155
9Oklahoma65.0072613
10Missouri62.39111917
11Iowa61.03131634
12Indiana61.02103116
13Delaware61.0021327
14Ohio60.70161415
15Texas60.23123912
16Maine59.8128244
17Georgia59.78153610
18Virginia58.5823233
19Kansas58.5622640
20North Dakota58.21142846
21Michigan58.16192525
22North Carolina58.00202119
23Wisconsin57.96173029
24New Hampshire57.3636539
25Maryland56.87261828
26New Mexico56.59183838
27Pennsylvania56.56252920
28Rhode Island56.18321326
29Florida55.8127408
30Vermont55.7739445
31Wyoming55.20291047
32Nevada54.66313422
33Arizona54.22244424
34Illinois54.03354114
35New Jersey53.16402236
36Connecticut52.51344237
37Idaho52.10432042
38Alaska51.93373349
39Oregon51.84452431
40Nebraska51.67383248
41New York51.50423730
42Washington51.42413532
43California51.02334921
44South Dakota50.40304551
45Montana49.80471235
46Minnesota48.79444341
47Massachusetts46.93464650
48District of Columbia44.06504823
49Colorado42.96514718
50Hawaii42.29485043
51Utah42.20495133

 

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