The List: The Most Obese Cities

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A new Gallup-Healthways poll has found that at least 15 percent of residents in 187 of the 190 metro areas surveyed are obese.

The results come from the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index and are based on interviews with more than 350,000 American adults between Jan. 2 and Dec. 29, 2011. Participants reported their height and weight, which was used to calculate body mass index, or BMI, a measure of a person's fatness. BMI scores of 30 or greater are considered obese. (For example, a 5-foot-4-inch woman who weighs 174 pounds or more, or a 5-foot-10-inch man who weighs 209 pounds or more would have a BMI of 30.)

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Jeanna Bryner
Managing editor, Scientific American

Jeanna Bryner is managing editor of Scientific American. Previously she was editor in chief of Live Science and, prior to that, an editor at Scholastic's Science World magazine. Bryner has an English degree from Salisbury University, a master's degree in biogeochemistry and environmental sciences from the University of Maryland and a graduate science journalism degree from New York University. She has worked as a biologist in Florida, where she monitored wetlands and did field surveys for endangered species, including the gorgeous Florida Scrub Jay. She also received an ocean sciences journalism fellowship from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. She is a firm believer that science is for everyone and that just about everything can be viewed through the lens of science.