Colorado Remains 'Skinniest' State, Obesity Poll Finds

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woman running on a street
Perhaps people exercise more in Colorado, but whatever the reason, the state has the fewest obese people in the country.
(Image credit: Dreamstime.)

If you were to walk the streets of, say, Denver, you'd probably see more thin people than overweight ones. Colorado continues to have the country's lowest obesity rate, according to the latest Gallup poll results.

Twenty percent of Colorado residents are obese, compared to 34 percent of the people in West Virginia, which has the highest obesity rate in the United States. Colorado and West Virginia had the same top and bottom spots, respectively, in the 2010 survey.

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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.