Over Long Run, Most Americans Will Be Fat, Study Says

BALTIMORE -- A three-decade study shows that 90 percent of American men and 70 percent of American women will become overweight at some time in their life.

And if you've made it to middle age without a problem, watch out. Half the people in the study who did that ultimately became overweight. One-third of those women and one-fourth of the men became obese.

The study of more than 4,000 white adults enrolled in the Framingham Heart Study in Framingham, Mass., is published in Tuesday's issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.

The study followed the adults for 30 years. They were between 30 and 59 years old when the study started. One-third of them were obese by the end of the study.

Dr. Ramachandran Vasan, the study's lead author from Boston University's School of Medicine, said the findings show people can't become complacent.

"Our results, although not surprising, are worrisome,” Vasan said in a news release. "If the trend continues, our country will continue to face substantial health problems related to excess weight."

Being overweight increases the likelihood of developing diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease, stroke, breathing problems such as asthma and sleep apnea, some cancers, osteoarthritis, and gall bladder disease, according to the study.

"National surveys and other studies have told us that the United States has a major weight problem, but this study suggests that we could have an even more serious degree of overweight and obesity over the next few decades,” said Dr. Elizabeth G. Nabel, the director of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, which supported the study. "In addition, these results may underestimate the risk for some ethnic groups."

Framingham study participants were white, and other studies have shown, for example, that Hispanic and black Americans -- especially women -- are more likely to be overweight than their white counterparts.

• Study Abstract