Abstract
Objectives
Four metrics to characterise population overweight are described.
Methods
Behavioural Risk Factors Surveillance System data were used to estimate the weight the US population needed to lose to achieve a BMI < 25. The metrics for population level overweight were total weight, total volume, total energy, and energy value.
Results
About 144 million people in the US need to lose 2.4 million metric tonnes. The volume of fat is 2.6 billion litres—1,038 Olympic size swimming pools. The energy in the fat would power 90,000 households for a year and is worth around 162 million dollars.
Conclusions
Four confronting ways of talking about a national overweight and obesity are described. The value of the metrics remains to be tested.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Beattie T ( 2010) Marginal musings: maternal mortality: the equivalent of three 747 s crashing every day [Internet]. http://tina-beattie.blogspot.com/2010/02/maternal-mortality-equivalent-of-three.html. Cited 28 Apr 2012
Bellanger TM, Bray GA (2005) Obesity related morbidity and mortality. J La State Med Soc 157(1):S42–S49
Centers for Disease Control (2011) BRFSS annual survey data: survey data and documentation [Internet]. http://www.cdc.gov/brfss/technical%5Finfodata/surveydata/2010/overview_10.rtf. Cited 8 Jun 2012
Christian Medical Fellowship (2010) MDG 5—saving the lives of mothers [Internet]. http://www.cmf.org.uk/publications/content.asp?context=article&id=25517. Cited 28 Apr 2012
DSW (2008) What about reproductive health? Improving the success of development cooperation. German Foundation for World Population (DSW), Hannover
Flegal KM, Shepherd JA, Looker AC, Graubard BI, Borrud LG, Ogden CL et al (2009) Comparisons of percentage body fat, body mass index, waist circumference, and waist-stature ratio in adults. Am J Clin Nutr 89(2):500–508
Heo M, Faith MS, Pietrobelli A, Heymsfield SB (2012) Percentage of body fat cutoffs by sex, age, and race-ethnicity in the US adult population from NHANES 1999–2004. Am J Clin Nutr 95(3):594–602
Jiang Y, Chen Y, Manuel D, Morrison H, Mao Y, Obesity Working Group (2007) Quantifying the impact of obesity category on major chronic diseases in Canada. Sci World J 7:1211–1221
Kent M (2000) Advanced biology. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Krul AJ, Daanen HAM, Choi H (2011) Self-reported and measured weight, height and body mass index (BMI) in Italy, the Netherlands and North America. Eur J Public Health 21(4):414–419
Lumley T (2012) Survey: analysis of complex survey samples. R package version 3.28-2
McAdams MA, Van Dam RM, Hu FB (2007) Comparison of self-reported and measured BMI as correlates of disease markers in US adults. Obesity (Silver Spring) 15(1):188–196
Obesity and Overweight for Professionals (2012) Data and statistics: U.S. Obesity Trends|DNPAO|CDC [Internet]. http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/trends.html. Cited 28 Apr 2012
Olympic-size swimming pool (2012) Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [Internet]. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic-size_swimming_pool. Cited 8 Jun 2012
Peters E, Dieckmann N, Västfjäll D, Mertz C, Slovic P, Hibbard J (2009) Bringing meaning to numbers: the impact of evaluative categories on decisions. J Exp Psychol Appl 15(3):213–227
Plunkett JW (2008) Plunkett’s energy industry almanac. Plunkett Research, Ltd., Houston
R Development Core Team (2013) R: a language and environment for statistical computing [Internet]. R Foundation for Statistical Computing,Vienna. http://www.R-project.org
Reidpath D (2007) Summary measures of population health: controversies and new directions. In: Kawachi I, Wamala S (eds) Globalization and health. Oxford University Press, New York, pp 187–200
Reilly JJ, Kelly J (2011) Long-term impact of overweight and obesity in childhood and adolescence on morbidity and premature mortality in adulthood: systematic review. Int J Obes (Lond) 35(7):891–898
Siri W (1956) The gross composition of the body. In: Tobias C, Lawrence J (eds) Advances in biological and medical physics. Academic Press, New York, pp 239–280
Slovic P (2010) The more who die, the less we care. In: Slovic P, Michel-Kerjan E (eds) The irrational economist: decision making in a dangerous world. Public Affairs Press, New York, pp 30–40
US Energy Information Administration (2005) Residential energy consumption survey (RECS) [Internet]. http://205.254.135.7/consumption/residential/data/2005/#tabs-2. Cited 8 Jun 2012
World Health Organization (2000) Obesity: preventing and managing the global epidemic. Report of a WHO consultation. World Health Organization, Geneva. Report No.: Technical Report Series 894
World Health Organization, Regional Office for Africa (2004) WHO says maternal mortality is a “silent emergency”—WHO|Regional Office for Africa [Internet]. http://www.afro.who.int/en/media-centre/pressreleases/item/594-who-says-maternal-mortality-is-a-silent-emergency.html. Cited 28 Apr 2012
Acknowledgment
None.
Conflict of interest
None.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Reidpath, D.D., Masood, M. & Allotey, P. How much energy is locked in the USA? Alternative metrics for characterising the magnitude of overweight and obesity derived from BRFSS 2010 data. Int J Public Health 59, 503–507 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-013-0510-1
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-013-0510-1