It's nearly the time of year when many of us begin to ignore the scales. With the holidays approaching, it's a futile effort to hold to that new fad diet you've restarted three times this year.

Unfortunately, as Americans, we've built a reputation over the years for being unhealthy and overweight. In some ways, it's unavoidable, such as the traditions of our favorite holidays or the cost of healthy food options.

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Nationally, according to the CDC, roughly 42% of Americans are considered obese. Like many northern states, Michigan is in the crowd helping to bring that percentage down. According to the most recent data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Michigan ranks just 35th in obesity and even has four counties with below-average obesity rates.

The counties with obesity rates below the national average of 32.2% were Washtenaw (29.4%),  Oakland (30.7%), Leelanau (31.8%) and Ottawa (31.9%).

The Rural Health Information Hub has compiled data from the CDC Diabetes County Data Indicators from 2004-2021 to see the trends of each county in the state to determine their obesity prevalence.

Rather than just data from one year, this data shows the persistent trends of these counties to classify better which counties are consistently struggling with obesity.

In this data set, the national average for obese Americans is closer to 30%. Michigan performed relatively well in this data with a bit more than half of the counties falling below the national average.

However, a few counties that still tipped the scales a bit too much. The 13 counties listed below are consistently the most obese counties in Michigan this side of the millennia.

Michigan's 13 Most Overweight Counties

These 13 Michigan counties have the highest obesity rates based on data from the Rural Health Information Hub.

Gallery Credit: Jacob Harrison

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