43 A Christian Guide to Body Stewardship, Diet and Exercise Obesity Statistics The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2022) provides the following statistics regarding the prevalence of obesity in the United States: • In 2019, the estimated annual medical cost of obesity was $173 billion. • From 1999 to 2020, the prevalence of obesity increased from 30.5% to 41.9%. • From 1999 to 2020, the prevalence of severe obesity increased from 4.7% to 9.2%. • In terms of ethnicity, non-Hispanic black adults had the highest prevalence of obesity (49.9%), followed by Hispanic adults (45.6%), non-Hispanic White adults (41.4%), and non-Hispanic Asian adults (16.1%). • In terms of age, adults aged 40-59 years had the highest prevalence of obesity (44.3%), followed by adults aged 60 and older (41.5%), and adults aged 20-39 years (39.8%). • In terms of socioeconomic status, adults without a high school degree or equivalent had the highest prevalence of obesity (37.8%), followed by adults with some college (35.6%) or high school graduates (35.5%), and then by college graduates (26.3%). Additionally, prevalence of obesity was lower in the lowest and highest income groups as compared with the middle-income group. If current trends continue, it is estimated that 50% of American adults will be classified as obese (i.e., body mass index (BMI) values ≥30) by the year 2030 (Wang et al., 2011). The remedy seems to be in ensuring access to nutritious food and preventative healthcare, increasing physical activity, smoking cessation, stress and sleep management, and eating in a flexible manner that honors hunger, satiety, and appetite (Bacon et al., 2002; Bacon et al., 2005). What Causes Weight Gain? There are several theories as to what actually causes or leads to weight gain (Thygerson & Thygerson, 2016). • Fat cell theory. This theory says that obese individuals have too many fat cells. People with an above-average number of fat cells may have been born with them or developed them over time as a result of overeating. It is believed that, through proper diet and exercise, individuals can decrease the size of fat cells but not the number. • Set point theory. This theory says that obese individuals are genetically predisposed to carry a certain amount of weight. This predisposition is set and determined by the hypothalamus. This theory also states that losing weight, and keeping it off, is often times hard to do because the body strives to get back to its predisposed set point. In order to lose weight, and keep it off, the individual must somehow change their set point.
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