The Fattest States

Ha, take that Red Wings fans.

Interesting, with the exception of Utah and Montana it very closely resembles a political map. Fat states=Republican land. Wonder why that is?

Any correlation with Red States and Blue States?

Glad to see I bring down Iowa's percentage.

This can't be true. I'm in florida and a fat guy and most people you see are too :P

Heck yeah! I live in Colorado.

Honestly I think it's just because there's sooooo much to do here.

yeah, dray - i'm with you. we're surrounded by restaurants and families that serve up those old fashioned farmer's portion meals, but you just gotta enjoy that good stuff in moderation.

Yay Colorado! I think it's a couple of things: We do have a lot to do here, great weather, but also the food tastes here are substantially different from everywhere else it seems. The unhealthiest restaurants you see here are some of the chains like red robins and chili's, and (at least where I live) there's a LOT of alternatives, like local diners that have good food that isn't fried or anything.

Do you think maybe the mountain climbing and the skiing have anything to do with it?

BTW, for people trying to correlate this with politics, CO is traditionally a Republican stronghold. It's only gone liberal in the last few years with the influx of those crunchy hippies from CA.

I want to see the correlation between this and the richest and poorest states.

(don't even get me started about being broke and being forced to eat "Broke food" which is chock full of carbs and salt and all kinds of preservative nastiness. I want to start a bill where people get a significant tax credit if they buy produce, use gym memberships and/or purchase diet food. Maybe people would be able to lose weight if they could afford healthier foods! the tax benefit would offset that joke of a "living wage" they call minimum wage)

Strayface, tax credits or deductions don't mean anything to poor people. If your income is low enough you don't pay income tax. Minimum wage is really low income, unless you have two or three wage earners in a family. Certain types of credits help, like the EITC, but not most.

a lot of this has to do with poverty, especially in the south. healthy food is more expensive than food that's bad for you. healthy food also takes more time to prepare. perhaps when these issues are addressed, we'll see obesity drop. until then, all the trans fat bans in the world won't stop people from getting fat.

only tourists ski and hike

They should have based the study on McDonalds presence per state.

I live in CO. I ski rarely but hike fairly often. That said, while I'm not obese, I could probably do with a few less pounds.

I'm a little surprised at CO's ranking in that there are more pedestrian friendly places out there and driving alot isn't going to burn many calories.

Over 18% of the population of Colorado is obese? That's a huge percentage of the population. WTF are you guys cheering for? There's nothing to be proud of here.

Seriously — the "leanest" state has almost 1/5 of its population obese? Sure, it's better than the 1/3 on the other side of the spectrum but it's horrible either way.

That seems to be splitting hairs to define the leanest and fattest states. The majority of the states seem to have around a quarter of their population overweight, give or take a few percentage points. It's not like CO is only 8% fatties while MI is at 80%, which would be a bit more interesting.

The argument that healthy food isn't affordable is laughably bad. Rice, beans, lean chicken, a wide selection of veggies and fruits are very affordable and easy to prepare. It's how 3rd world countries eat all the time.

Giving your kids snack cakes and soda vs giving them fruit with peanut butter and a glass of water is a no-brainer. Personal responsibility means considering long-term health. That's something that people are capable of doing regardless of income.