Land of the Fat

The great American concern about weight goes back at least two decades, and over the years millions have plunged into diets and all manner of reducing schemes, from daily jogging to lengthy sojourns at high-priced fat farms. To what effect? Very little, says the National Center for Health Statistics, an offshoot of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. In fact, the center reports, men and women in most age and height groups actually weigh more than they did 15 years ago.

The center based its findings on a comparison between a survey taken in 1960-62 and a second study, covering 13,671 individuals selected at random as representative of the entire U.S. population, conducted in 1971-74. The reported weight gains varied widely, up to 14 Ibs., depending on the sex, age and height of the subjects (see chart). But overall, they show that nearly the whole population is growing heavier. In the early 1960s, the average American woman was 5 ft. 3 in.

tall and weighed 140 Ibs.; today Ms. Average is pushing 5 ft. 4 in. and weighs 143 Ibs. The average male used to be a shade more than 5 ft. 8 in. tall and weighed 166 lbs.; now he is 5 ft. 9 in. and tips the scales at 172 lbs.--a 4% weight gain. In general, shorter people have gained the least weight; the added avoirdupois has been most striking among taller men and women.

Among men from ages 35 to 44 who are 6 ft. tall, for instance, the average weight increase has been 10 lbs. (to 194 lbs.). Among women in the same age group who are 5 ft. 8 in. tall, the weight gain has been a hefty 13 lbs. (to 167 Ibs.); for 5-ft. 6-in. women in this same group the increase has been 9 lbs. (to 159 Ibs.).

How to account for all this added heft? Laments Statistician Sidney Abraham, the main author of the center's report: "Adults are obviously not getting appreciably taller, and they usually do not get more muscular. All we can say is that the weight increase we found is due to fat." One cause might be junk food and quick lunches, eaten hastily. Independent physicians who treat many overweight patients are inclined to put at least as much if not more blame on prolonged TV watching, especially for men who spend many weekend hours entranced by football, enhanced with a six-pack of beer at their elbows.

Simple overweight is distinguished medically from gross obesity, a more serious condition that is often more difficult to treat. But even plain excess weight is almost universally believed to contribute to premature heart attacks and to be a prime cause of adult diabetes. Data compiled by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. in 1960 showed that more than half of American adults then weighed 10% or more over the ideal for their height--a situation that the new data seem to show has grown even worse. In other words, despite the growing number of joggers, tennis nuts, weight watchers and organic-food freaks, the struggle against excess flab is not only uphill but getting steeper all the time.

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