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Topics: Health
Joe Yates
People have only just discovered what the average weight of an American man comes in at, and it's a concerning read for some.
The figure comes from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and worryingly it's estimated that the average American aged 20 or over weighs a staggering 33 pounds more than their ancestors did just over 50 years ago.
To put that into perspective, that's about the same amount of weight as a standard microwave.
While the data was released four months ago, a recent Reddit broke the news to some of those on the platform.
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"TIL [Today I learned] I weigh less than the average American even though I think I need to lose 25 pounds," one user brutally quipped.
While a second added: "It’s so easy to get fat in America, was 265-270 at my largest but down to 190 basically only changing eating habits."
Surprisingly, if you're aged 20 or over and you weigh 190 pounds, you'd actually be just short of 10 pounds lighter than the average American - which currently stands at 199 pounds.
So where does that number actually come from? According to data from the CDC, the average adult male in the US weighs just under 200 pounds, based on nationwide health surveys.
That figure puts many men right on the edge of the 'overweight' category depending on their height, body composition, and activity level.
It’s worth noting that 'average' doesn’t mean 'ideal'. The CDC points out that a healthy weight range varies widely depending on factors like height, age, muscle mass, and body fat percentage.
Tools like Body Mass Index (BMI) and waist measurements are often used to gauge health risk, but experts stress they don’t tell the whole story - someone who’s fit and muscular, for example, might technically fall into the 'overweight' range without actually being unhealthy.
As for the figure around how much men weighed back in the early 1960s - the average American man over 20 weighed around 166 pounds, according to government records. Fast forward to today, and that’s a jump of roughly 33 pounds.
That steady climb reflects bigger shifts in lifestyle, diet, and daily habits.
More processed foods, more screen time, and less physical activity have all played their part in shaping modern waistlines.
To make the figure even more frightening, the average American man aged 20 and over is 5' 7" in height - which would see them fall just short of being 'obese' on the BMI if they also weighed 199 pounds... obviously, as mentioned earlier that would depend on how muscular they were among other factors.
As for US women, in the latest data their average weight is 171.8 pounds and their average height is 63.5 inches, again around 30 pounds heavier than the average weight between 1960-62.