(The Center Square) – The number of states with the highest obesity rates declined in 2024, while Nevada’s obesity epidemic deepened.
Last year, 34.2% of Nevadans lived with obesity, putting the state on the edge of the 35% cutoff for the highest obesity rate, according to a new nationwide report. The 3% obesity rate increase between 2023-2024, deemed statistically insignificant, was nonetheless the biggest growth among all states.
“ Without a doubt, obesity rates are too high,” Nicole Bungum, supervisor of the Southern Nevada Health District’s Office of Chronic Disease Prevention for over 20 years, told The Center Square. “They’re too high in the country, they’re too high in Nevada, and they’re too high in Clark County.”
In 2024, over 35% of the population in 19 states was obese, which was down from 23 states from the year prior. This was according to Trust for America’s Health, which looked at data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Between 2019 and 2024, all states with available data increased in obesity, with Western states like Nevada seeing the biggest hikes.
Obesity is defined as an individual having a body mass index of 30 or higher, as per the CDC.
“ It has been increasing over the last decade, and we know that obesity is tied to a number of chronic diseases,” Bungum told The Center Square.
Obesity is associated with many long-term physical health issues such as type II diabetes, cardiovascular disease, several varieties of cancer, arthritis, digestive disorders. It is also known to increase the risk of long-term mental health issues – depression, anxiety, social isolation, as well as other emotional impacts that come with the stigma attached to obesity.
“We know a lot more about obesity than we did even 10 years ago,” said Bungum. “And we understand that it’s not just eat less and exercise more.”
The Oct. 16 report by Trust for America’s Health showed Nevada’s obesity rate grew by 3% to 34.2% in 2024, marking the greatest increase in obesity of any state for the year.
Still, it may not be cause for too much concern yet. Obesity rates should be looked at over many years, Bungum said, before they are considered a trend. “ We were highlighted as having the biggest rate of increase in that year, but it isn’t a statistically significant increase.”
As the obesity epidemic continues in Nevada and across the U.S., new medicine could add to the old solution of exercise and healthier eating.
“Factors that contribute to it [obesity] are systemic – environmental, genetic and behavioral,” she said. “The development of pharmacotherapies, like GLP-1 medications for obesity, the use will continue, I think, to increase, and that will be a major factor.”
GLP-1 medications, like Ozempic, reduce the hunger desire in the brain and delay emptying the stomach to make users feel more full for longer, leading many people to lose weight, as per the Harvard Medical School.
“In fact, I think that’s why there is nationally starting to be a decline in obesity rates,” Bungum continued. “But that impact is going to be limited if they’re [GLP-1] not affordable and available to those who need them.”
Across the board, obesity can be an expensive disease for both the government and individuals. People with obesity pay an average 34% more in health care costs, while obesity in general costs $1.7 trillion in the U.S., according to the Obesity Action Coalition, a national leader of obesity-related policy.
