CDC Unveils Latest Fat Map

More than a fifth of adults in Colorado are fat, but it's still the skinniest state in the nation, according to a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention map that highlights the scale of America's obesity epidemic. The CDC's 2011 map, based on a continuous, wide-ranging series of surveys, shows that at least 20% of people in every state are obese, and in 12 states, more than 30% of people are obese, Wired reports. Obesity is most prevalent in Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, and West Virginia.

Tennessee has dropped off the most obese list and Indiana has joined it, but the CDC warns that this year's map can't be directly compared with previous years because of some changes in methodology. States in the "fat belt" tend to be those with the highest rates of strokes and diabetes and lowest per-capita incomes, MedPage Today notes. Mississippi, America's poorest state, is also its heaviest, with 34.9% obesity. (More obesity stories.)