Weight watching
Dallas-Fort Worth tips the scales as one of nation’s fattest metros, new report says
Here’s the skinny on obesity in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area: The region appears at No. 27 in a new ranking of the fattest places in the country.
Personal finance website WalletHub just released its 2022 ranking of the country’s fattest places. The website compared 100 of the most populated U.S. metro areas across 19 key indicators of weight-related problems. The ranking factors include the percentage of physically inactive adults, projected obesity rates by 2030, and access to healthy food.
Based on those indicators, Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington ranks 27th, making it the third-fattest major metro in Texas. The McAllen area ranks first in the U.S. and, therefore, in Texas. San Antonio ranks second in Texas.
DFW shows up at No. 19 in the study’s “obesity and overweight” category, No. 38 in the “health consequences” category, and No. 33 in the “food and fitness” category. (Higher numbers are better than lower numbers.)
“There are lots of ideas for policies to combat obesity. So far, most programs have not achieved the gains they have aimed for. Instead, obesity continues to rise,” Kathleen Davis, assistant professor of nutrition and food sciences at Texas Woman’s University in Denton, tells WalletHub.
Here’s how the major metros in Texas rank in the WalletHub study:
- San Antonio, No, 25
- Dallas-Fort Worth, No. 27
- El Paso, No. 30
- Houston, No. 36
- Austin, No. 54
Nationwide, WalletHub ranks the top five fattest metro areas as McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, Texas (No. 1), Memphis, Tennessee (No. 2), Knoxville, Tennessee (No. 3), Mobile, Alabama (No. 4), and Jackson, Mississippi (No. 5).
"Remember that being healthier is not a contest," Davis says. "Your health is your concern and every time you make a healthier choice, this advances YOUR goals. None of us is perfect, so forgive yourself and move on to the next opportunity to make a healthy choice."