The 'fattest' city in the U.S. is in Texas, list says

Everything truly is bigger in Texas — including our waistlines.

Obesity is certainly present throughout the U.S., with the C.D.C saying that around 93.3 million of U.S. adults were affected in 2015. But according to a new Wallethub study, the fattest metropolitan area in the United States is in Texas.

The study says the McAllen-Edinburg-Mission area is the fattest overall area, based on analysis of federal data looking at factors like the number of obese and overweight people, people with obesity-releated health conditions and healthy lifestyles. The area was also in the top 5 in Wallethub's rankings in 2018 and 2017.

The McAllen-Edinburg-Mission area also ranked the highest in the food and fitness category, which reviewed data about low fruit and vegetable consumption, physically inactive adults and limited access to healthy food.

Other Texas metropolitan areas on the list include the San Antonio-New Braunfels area, at No. 19, the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington area and the Houston-Woodlands-Sugar Land area. The Austin-Round Rock area ranked 56th on the list — below all of the other Texas cities on the list.

Nearly all of the other areas at the top of the list, including Memphis, TN, Jackson, MS, and Tulsa, OK, are also from the South. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the states with the highest poverty rates in the nation are also located in the South — which multiple studies have linked to obesity.

The study also says this obesity has led to $147 billion and $210 billion per year in obesity-related medical treatment costs and $4.3 billion in annual productivity losses due to work absenteeism. The C.D.C. recommends healthy eating and regular exercise to combat the effects of obesity.