We're fat, but not that fat. Of the 100 most populous cities in America, we're the 44th fattest.

WalletHub ranked the country's top 100 cities by their obesity rates, and Grand Rapids came in the top half at 44th. Which means we've got room to improve.

If you're wondering, McAllen, TX is the fattest city in the USA, followed by Shreveport, LA; Memphis, TN; Jackson, MS; and Knoxville, TN. I guess that good old Southern cooking is REALLY delicious.

In fact, the first city to show up north of the Mason-Dixon line is Toledo, OH, which is understandable, because they do have Tony Packo's, the best Hungarian chili dog place in the world. I'd be fat if lived near there, too.

In order to determine the fattest cities in America, WalletHub compared 100 of the most populated U.S. metro areas across three key dimensions: 1) Obesity & Overweight, 2) Health Consequences and 3) Food & Fitness.

We evaluated those dimensions using 19 relevant metrics, which are listed below with their corresponding weights. Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the “fattest.” Data for metrics marked with an asterisk (*) were available only at the state level.

We then determined each city’s weighted average across all metrics to calculate its overall score and used the resulting scores to rank-order our sample.

Grand Rapids wound up 46th in terms of obesity, 68th in health consequences and 44th for food and fitness. I guess there's a price to pay for a pretty tasty food scene.

On the serious side, WalletHub reminds us of the cost of obesity:

Americans are some of the fattest people in the world, not just stereotypically but statistically too. In fact, almost 40 percent of U.S. adults are obese. But such a finding should come as no surprise, considering the huge availability of fast-food and increasingly cheaper grocery items that have negatively altered our diets. Unfortunately, the extra pounds have inflated the costs of obesity-related medical treatment to approximately $190.2 billion a year and annual productivity losses due to work absenteeism to around $4.3 billion.

 

More From 100.5 FM The River