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New data ranking state-by-state obesity rates is out today, and despite some modest improvements, the statistics are still pretty grim. According to the report conducted by the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, adult obesity rates now exceed 35 percent in four states and 30 percent in 25 states. What’s more, obesity rates are above 20 percent in every single state across the country. To put that in perspective, the authors point out that in 1991, no state had a rate above 20 percent. (Welch, 9/1)

There's some good news about obesity in the U.S. for a change. Rates of obesity fell in four states last year: Minnesota, Montana, New York and Ohio, according to a report released Thursday. Colorado is the slimmest state, with just 20 percent of the population in the obese category, while Louisiana weighs in as the heaviest state with 36 percent of the population being obese. (Fox, 9/1)

Nearly one third of adults in Pennsylvania and a quarter of those in New Jersey are considered obese and at increased risk of diabetes and heart disease, according to The State of Obesity, a report released this morning by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The annual report was previously titled "F As in Fat." In the Keystone State, the percentage of adults burdened with worrisome weight has nearly doubled in the last two decades. Since 1995, it has risen from almost 16 percent to 30 percent. In the Garden State during the same period, the proportion rose from 12 percent to 26 percent. (Wood, 9/1)

Minnesota's adult obesity rate saw a statistically significant drop between 2014 and 2015 and it was the only state in the Upper Midwest to keep those rates below 30 percent, state health officials said Thursday. The percentage of adults considered obese improved from 27.6 percent in 2014 to 26.1 percent in 2015, the Minnesota Department of Health said, citing data from the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The figures "confirm that Minnesota has returned to its historically lower obesity rate that remains steady on a year-to-year basis even as other states and the U.S. as a whole continues on an upward trend," the department said in a statement. (9/1)

The percentage of Minnesotans who are obese has dropped, and the obesity rate is lower here than in other Upper Midwestern states, data released on Thursday show. State health officials aren’t above some not-so-humble bragging about that. “Minnesota was the only state in the region, including North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Iowa, to succeed in keeping its obesity rates firmly below 30 percent,” the Minnesota Department of Health reported, citing newly released data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. From 2014 to 2015, the percentage of Minnesotans who meet the definition of obese dropped from 27.6 percent to 26.1 percent, the data show. (Lundy, 9/1)