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Main points

• 42% American adults had obesity and 10% were severely obese, while another 30.7% were overweight with a body mass index (BMI) of 25 to 29.9.

• A new report has also revealed that 19.3% of children and young people, aged between two and 19, had obesity, with 6.1% of kids identified as being severely obesity.

• The age group with the highest rates of obesity was those aged between 40 to 59 where 45% of people had a BMI of 30 or higher, with middle-aged men having the greatest obesity prevalence at 46%.

• These high rates of obesity contrast to data from the survey period covering 1960-1962 when just 13.4% of adults were obese and less than 1% were severely obese. Approximately 31.5% of American adults were considered overweight during this period.