I wonder how it would break down if they seperated the men out by marital status. High stress levels cause many people to overeat.

Also, there are too many sports fans and too few sports participants. Chips, dips and a comfy couch is not the ticket to a six pack.

Perhaps the most overlooked aspect of weight gain is that of fast food outlets, restaruants, and store shelves that use and sell preprepared foods thah have had all the nutritional value cooked out of them and chemically treated for preservation. Convient foods may be convient but they lack the nutrition, vitamins, and minerals the body needs. When the body is in need of certain nutritions it sends a hunger signal to the person that it needs more input. As the saying goes in the computer world "garbage in, garbage out" and this pertains to the human body as well. As long as the body keeps getting garbage in it keeps sending the hunger signals from the brain to the stomach. These processed foods have become nothing more than filler foods with very little food value that we need. So hunger is a day long craving that just keeps getting fed un-needed and wasted food that the body doesn't need so it stores it as waste in the form of fat. Grandmas foods did and does have its merits, even with its high calories and high nutritional fat contents it does provied the energy to be active and a satisfied hunger.

Most of these studies use the BMI to calculate obesity. It's accurate for some, but inaccurate for many, especially men because it can't differentiate between muscle (which weighs more than fat), bones or just fat. I think I'm listed or even a little above-normal, but anybody who looked at me would laugh at the idea I'm anything but skin and bones.

It's time to admit that we're overweight and to get on with reducing that weight load. I've rationalized my heavier weight, wondering how, at 6' tall, I should weigh 185 lbs; justifying my 210 or 220 as just right 'for me'. But it's not just right, it's overweight. Too many of us justify like this...let's get over it and lose some weight! No matter the reasons (fast food, overeating) let's make positive change in our lives and make those necessary lifestyle changes!

The headline should read: "68% of Utah men are overweight".

How many are "battling" it is significantly less. Most probably have made some sort of alliance with the weight to let it stick around for a while.