American men are, on average, about 7 kilograms heavier than just 20 years ago, according to a new report.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released data Wednesday saying that the average weight for U.S. men over the age of 20 is 88.7 kilograms, according to data from 2011 to 2014. That’s up from 82 kilograms based on data from 1988 to 1994.
Average height remained the same.
“[This rate] is always a cause for alarm,” Dr. Goutham Rao, Chairman of the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at Case Western Medical Center told ABC News.
Women and children did not go without weight gain either. The average woman weighed 64 kilograms in 1960 and 76 kilograms today. Adolescents, both boys and girls, saw a 5.4-kilogram weight increase over the past 20 years.
The report did not give reasons for the increase in average weight, but there are many statistics that show that there is an epidemic of obesity in the U.S.
The data for the study came from over 19,000 participants in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2011 to 2014.
The CDC says that roughly 35 percent of Americans are obese, which can cause a variety of health conditions such as heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and some forms of cancer. The annual estimated cost of obesity was $147 million in 2008 dollars, the CDC said.
One bright spot in the CDC report was that the rate of weight increase for men appears to be slowing down, saying that since 2002, men only increased average weight by 2.3 kilograms.
Rao told ABC that there are some simple things people can do to prevent weight gain, including choosing water over sugary drinks and incorporating some physical activity into daily life.
Instead of worrying about each pound you lose, Rao said people should “think about adopting healthy behaviors that can last a lifetime.”
