Montana Weighs In as One of the Least Obese States in America

A new survey reveals that obesity rates in Montana are lower than all but 44 other states. Communication Manager for The Trust For America’s Health, Albert Lang, says Montana fits into a general trend discovered by the survey.

"We found that Montana had one of the lowest rates for adult obesity in the country at 24.3 percent," Lang said. "Basically in the top ten for lowest. So, far better than the rest of the country. What we found were that there were kind of geographic similarities. So, the west and the northeast tend to have lower rates of adult obesity. Montana's rates are in keeping with some of it's neighbors like Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and the like."

The survey also found that Montana's baby boomers were bloating the state's numbers.

"In Montana actually, baby boomers have an obesity rate of 29.1 percent compared to young adults 18 to 25. Their rate is only 15.4 percent. So, [the baby boomers] are basically double what young adults are in the state of Montana. We all know that, obviously, there's a lot more baby boomers than there are of other age populations. They are heavier and there's more of them, so that's probably what is driving obesity rates in Montana."

In Louisiana, the most overweight state, 37.4 percent were obese. In Colorado, the least overweight state, only 20.5 percent of the adult population was obese.

Albert Lang