The statistic that 70% of people in the U.S. are overweight is a lie The 70% figure came from the CDC, which cites this PDF as its source for the claim:  http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus15.pdf#053 It defines "overweight" as having a BMI of greater than or equal to 25.  The flaw with this is that BMI is not the best way to measure whether someone is overweight.  In fact, on average in large populations, BMI actually UNDERESTIMATES the amount of overweight people when compared to using bodyfat percentage. As usual, the U.S. federal government is lying to you.  Fats make up a much larger percentage of the population than 70%.