According to a new Gallup survey, which just released its 2013 survey on US obesity rates, obesity rates are increasing across America with Mississipi with highest rates. Montana continues to have the least rates of obesity in the US. Overall obesity increased to 27.1% from 26.2% in 2012, and is up 1.6 percentage points from 25.5% in 2008. There were 11 states with obesity rates that topped 30%, compared to just five states in 2012. 

Obesity rates across the states have been computed by teh new Gallup survey and the state with the highest obesity rate is officially Mississippi and the lowest rate is Montana in the US. West Virginia had the highest obesity rate in 2012 but has now lost its title to Mississippi. Montana has the highest rates of obesity for the third time in a row according to the new Gallup survey that classified people as obese if their Body Mass Index (BMI) is 30 or more. 35.4 percent of Mississippians have a BMI above 30, giving the southern state the highest obesity rate in the country.

The new survey calculated that Mississippi, West Virginia, Louisiana, Delaware and Arkansas topped the list with highest rates of obesity in the US while Montana is least followed by Colorado, Nevada, Minnesota and Massachusetts with the lowest rates of obesity. New York and California made the healthy state list again as they make the top 10 list of low obesity rates in the US every year since 2008.

Results are based on telephone interviews conducted as part of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index survey Jan. 2-Dec. 29, 2013, with a random sample of 178,072 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.

The 10 highest obesity states have higher rates of chronic diseases like high cholesterol and diabetes, and have a high blood pressure diagnosis, compared to 26.4% of Americans living in the 10 least obese states.

So why is Mississippi so overweight with a whopping 34% obesity rate?

Is it the chicken fried steak, grits and corn bread and the state is too hot most of the time to burn off the fat?

Maybe.

Mississippi is one of the poorest states in the country which has a high amount of people who are on Welfare.

Survey results are not too surprising. 

But on the positive side, a recent federal study shows that things are getting much better with childhood obesity. The obesity rates of children ages 2 to 5 years old declined from 13.9% to 8.4% between 2003 and 2013.

What do you think of the results?