According to the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, obese adults outnumber overweight ones in America. Researchers found that 3/4 of men, and 2/3 of women are obese and the figures have increased by 10% since the 1990s.

Based on figures, like body mass index (BMI), height, weight, overweight is defined by a body weight 10 to 20 % higher than average. While obese is defined as at least 20 % higher than normal weight.

A new study has revealed that that about 67.6 million Americans over the age of 25 were obese as of 2012 and 65.2 million were overweight.

For the study, researchers from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis (WUSTL) collected data between 2007 and 2012 from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Over 15,000 men and women aged at least 25 years old were involved in the study.

The researchers showed a numerical analysis that estimated obese Americans and overweight Americans in 2012. Chronic health conditions were also found to accompany that extra weight, including Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, even cancer

A WUSTL postgraduate researcher, Lin Yang said that the results are a ‘wake-up-call’ and policies and plans are required to deal with obesity and overweight concerns.

Certain strategies could help combat increasing US obesity rates. These include improving primary care, physical environments and changing social norms.