Half of Maine Adults Will Be Obese by 2030

A national report released yesterday shows that by 2030 half of Maine adults will be obese.

The “F as in Fat” report by the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation finds that 55.2 percent of Mainers will be obese in 20 years. The report calculates that every state in the country will have an obesity rate greater than 44%. Mississippi will be the fattest state in country will a whopping66.7% obesity rate while Colorado will be the thinnest with only 44.8% obesity rate.

Here’s what we can expect! (In Maine Alone)

• 192,680 new cases of Type 2 diabetes
•  462,648 new cases of coronary heart disease and stroke
• 405,204 new cases of hypertension
• 248,703 new cases of arthritis 
• 65,041 new cases of obesity-related cancer

With these numbers Maine’s health care cost related to obesity will rise 19% over the next 20 years.

Here’s the good news! If Mainers drop their body mass index by 5% over the next 20 years, we will save about $2.8 billion in health care costs. Body mass index is the calculation of  body fat. If someones body mass index (based on height and weight) totals 30 or higher, they’re obese. Dropping  5%  isn’t as much as you’d think. For an example, a 6 foot tall person weighing 200 pounds would only need to loose 10 pounds.

Maine’s current obsesity rate is 27.8%. We are tied for 25th with North Dakota for adult obesity.