African American women have the highest rates of obesity or being overweight compared to other groups in the United States. About 4 out of 5 African American women are overweight or obese.
Table 1 shows that, overall, non-Hispanic Blacks were most likely to be obese (prevalence was 36.1%), followed by Hispanics (28.7%), non-Hispanic Whites (24.5%), and non-Hispanic Asians (7.1%). Mean BMI values for the groups were 28.6, 27.7, 26.9, and 24.0, respectively.
According to data from the World Health Organization (WHO), the most obese countries are primarily located in the Pacific and the Middle East. The Pacific island nations of Nauru, Cook Islands, and Palau have the highest rates of obesity, with over 30% of their populations being classified as obese.
Among the US-born, Whites had the lowest total obesity prevalence followed by Hispanics and then Blacks; but racial-ethnic disparities for immigrants were different.
Body fat distribution differs by race-ethnicity such as among Hispanic, Black, East, and South Asian populations. Data to support different cutoff BMI values for such populations are sparse.
Healthy BMI for South Asians is less than 23 kg/m2.
Broadly speaking, irrespective of whether you are male or female, a BMI in the range of 18.5 to 24.9 is considered normal. Less than 18.5 is termed underweight. Over 24.9 to 30 considered overweight.
For all measures of overweight and obesity, men had higher rates than women did: 75% of men and 60% of women are living with overweight or obesity. 42% of men and 30% of women are living with overweight but not obesity. 33% of men and 30% of women are living with obesity.
After reviewing data from more than 2.8 million Americans, including 71,000 Asian Americans, researchers found that 11% of Asian Americans are obese, based on standard body mass index (BMI) calculations.
The average Black woman is 187 pounds, with a BMI of 32.2, which is considered obese. Black women are also more likely to develop obesity-related conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, and high cholesterol than their white counterparts.
Media Release - 16 November 2020
Aussie men are the second most obese in OECD countries - Aussie men have the second highest rates of obesity (32%) among 23 OECD countries, behind the USA (38%). Aussie women fared better than men but are still obese at a higher rate than the OECD average.
Nutrient transmission (change in diet) is the primary cause of the obesity epidemic in the Pacific Islands, with a high amount of imported foods high in salt and fat content grow.
Nauru. In Nauru, large bodies were traditionally associated with beauty and fertility. Young women were fattened up in preparation for child bearing and young men were fattened in preparation for contests of strength. Fattening rituals had both social and biological benefits.
Even today, some doctors believe that African-Americans are more tolerant of pain. One study found that relative to other racial groups, physicians are twice as likely to underestimate black patients' pain.
Obesity is more prevalent among American Indian and/or Native Alaskan (31.2%), non-Hispanic black (20.8%), and Hispanic (22.0%) children compared with their white (15.9%) and Asian (12.8%) peers.
As of 2019, around 10.8 percent of male population and almost 15 percent of female population in China were overweight, according to the UK medical journal The Lancet. This represents over 43 million men and more than 46 million women having obesity-related health issues in China.
Several studies have found that Asians tend to have more body fat, especially abdominal fat, and less lean mass than their western counterparts with a similar BMI. The whole situation is not helped by the typical high-carb, low-protein Asian diet of noodles, rice and dumplings.
These classifications for BMI have been adopted by the NIH and WHO for White, Hispanic, and Black individuals. Because these cutoffs underestimate risk in the Asian population, the WHO and NIH guidelines for Asian individuals define overweight as a BMI between 23 and 24.9 kg/m2 and obesity as a BMI >25 kg/m2.
Overweight and obesity
Tasmania had the highest rate of adults who were overweight or obese (70.9%), compared with Australian Capital Territory (64.0%) who had the lowest.
Tamworth was given the unflattering title of fattest town in Australia back in 2020, when the Australian Bureau of Statistics found that 61.2 per cent of residents were considered obese, compared to 31.3 per cent nationally.
Australia is ranked fifth for obesity, with wider waistlines than countries such as the United Kingdom, Canada and Ireland, but slimmer than Hungary, New Zealand, Mexico and the United States, which has an obesity rate of 38.2 per cent.
So according to this chart even a healthy man who works out a lot or has a high bone density and weights above 75kg would be considered overweight.
The way BMI is calculated for South Asians is different to the way in which it is calculated for people with a European background. The reason for this is that South Asians have been found to be more at risk of the problems of being overweight such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
May 30, 2023 Body Mass Index (BMI) Calculator
The formula is BMI = kg/m2 where kg is a person's weight in kilograms and m2 is their height in metres squared. A BMI of 25.0 or more is overweight, while the healthy range is 18.5 to 24.9. BMI applies to most adults 18-65 years.