The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in an effort to dispel confusion after recent statistics suggesting being overweight may not be as unhealthy as once thought, reiterated on Thursday that obesity was a major health threat to Americans.

CDC Director Julie Gerberding said the agency planned to invest more resources in studying the problem and bringing clarity to the debate over obesity, and noted that some confusion was due to the fact that obesity was not listed in medical records as a cause of death.

“Obesity and overweight are critically important health threats in this country, they have many adverse consequences,” Gerberding said during a news briefing.

“While we may not have an accurate estimate yet of the exact number of people who die from obesity, we certainly know that there is a large number of people who have the problem,” Gerberding said.

Obesity Definition

Obesity is also defined as a BMI (body mass index) over 30 kg/m2. Patients with a BMI between 25 and 29.9 are considered overweight, but not obese. See also diet and calories.

More than half of the U.S. population is overweight. But being obese is different from being overweight. An adult male is considered obese when his weight is 20% or more over the maximum desirable for their height; a woman is considered obese at 25% or more than this maximum weight. Anyone more than 100 pounds overweight is considered morbidly obese.

A group backed by the fast food industry in April jumped on new government data that questioned earlier government assertions that obesity causes nearly as many deaths as smoking, and launched an advertising blitz aimed at dismissing as hype fears about the health effects of being overweight.

The campaign by the Center for Consumer Freedom was inspired by new statistics from a CDC unit, the National Center for Health Statistics, or NCHS, that indicated 112,000 deaths were caused by obesity in 2000.

Previously, the CDC had cited statistics to claim that 400,000 people in the United States died every year from excess fat, almost as many as the 435,000 whose deaths are attributed to smoking.

CDC officials have said that obesity should be looked at in the context of what it contributes to life-threatening diseases, including cancer and diabetes.

Gerberding said the agency would focus more resources on studying the problem and improving how it communicates with the public on the issue.