SIOUX CITY, IA -
Fast food, all you can eat restaurants, too much T. V. and not enough exercise, all are contributing to a skyrocketing obesity rate here in America.
But it isn't just happening in far away states, obesity is a problem right here in Siouxland.
According to the Centers For Disease control, medical costs associated with obesity cost America $147 billion dollars back in 2008, but you don't have to be some sort of fitness guru to help get those costs down.
We've been seeing it, and feeling it, for the last decade now.
America's getting bigger and according to a new study by the Centers for Disease Control, that extra weight isn't going away.
Here are the numbers: 28.1% of folks in South Dakota are obese, 28.4% in Nebraska, and Iowa's the heaviest state in Siouxland with a 29% obesity rate.
But there is a way to fight this overweight epidemic, just ask folks like Luis Flores, a trainer at KOSAMA on Hamilton Boulevard.
"All you've got to do is make small, simple changes in your life," said Flores. "Going out for a brisk walk, building up to a brisk jog, going up to a run."
You don't have to go crazy with the workouts, either. Flores says getting thinner and healthier can be as simple as eating less, and eating healthier.
"One of the biggest things that people are going to gain from it is just self confidence, that's the bottom line," said Flores. "Self confidence is going to be one of the biggest things."
Even though obesity rates are higher in Siouxland, they're not the highest.
Mississippi tops the scales, with 34.9% of the population obese in that state.
Colorado is at the bottom, with a 20.7% obesity rate.
