EXCLUSIVE: United Slobs of America! The Nation's Fattest Cities Exposed – Is Yours On the List?
America's fattest cities have been ranked amid shocking new obesity figures.
April 10 2025, Published 6:00 a.m. ET
Everything's bigger in Texas – including the people, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
A new survey of America's 100 fattest cities found that the No1 chubby champion of the Lone Star State is McAllen, a city of 147,000.
Forty-five percent of its residents are obese, while an additional 31 percent are overweight.
McAllen also has the second-highest share of obese teenagers and the fifth-highest share of obese kids.
All the excess poundage is taking its toll on residents' health it has the eighth-highest share of people with diabetes and the fourth-highest heart-disease rate of the cities studied.
McAllen, Texas, tops the list of America's fattest cities, with 45% of its residents battling obesity.
The survey was conducted by financial firm WalletHub, which used several metrics to determine which of the 100 most populated cities in the U.S. were the heaviest.
Researchers first looked at the share of adults, teens and children who were overweight or obese.
They also calculated the health consequences of excess weight – that is, how many residents had conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease.
Scientists also assessed residents' consumption of fruits and vegetables, the availability of healthy foods, levels of physical activity, access to recreational facilities and the number of local health educators and community health workers.
Little Rock, Arkansas, ranks second for obesity.
McAllen-ers, for example, love their calorie-laden Tex-Mex and fast food and aren't big on working out.
But researchers said it's not all their fault – of the top 100 heftiest hubs, the city has the second-lowest percentage of residents who live close to parks or recreational facilities, making it harder to stay active.
And according to WalletHub's calculations, there's nothing little about Little Rock, Arkansas, which squeezed into the No 2 plumpest position. The investigators cited a lack of health educators and limited access to healthy foods as reasons why the capital city's residents are chunky.
Jackson, Mississippi, wedged itself into the third-place slot, followed by Mobile, Alabama, and Knoxville, Tennessee.
Fast food and few parks contribute to the rising obesity rates in cities such as Shreveport and Mobile.
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Rounding out the top 10 are Shreveport, Augusta, Lafayette, Fayetteville and Birmingham.
Experts blame the widespread availability of fast-food joints and cheap, unhealthy grocery items – chips, desserts, soda – for widening waistlines.
A lack of parks, sidewalks, walking and bike trails and swimming pools is also to blame.
The 10 skinniest cities are Portland, Oregone, New York City, Colorado Springs, Colorado, San Jose, California, Minneapolis, Boston, San Francisco, Denver, Seattle and Honolulu, all of which have a high number of recreational facilities and better access to healthy foods.
