If you’ve ever wondered how your weight compares with the rest of the country, federal health researchers have a precise answer. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention measures a nationally representative sample of Americans in person, and the latest round puts the average adult man at 199.0 pounds and the average adult woman at 171.8 pounds.
Those numbers come from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, or NHANES, conducted from August 2021 through August 2023 and published by the National Center for Health Statistics in June 2025. It is the most recent comprehensive federal body-measurement data available.
One thing the data cannot tell us: what GLP-1 medications have done to the national picture. Wegovy was approved in June 2021 and Zepbound not until November 2023, so this survey period sits almost entirely ahead of the point when these drugs began reshaping American eating habits and grocery shelves. Whatever effect they are having on average weight will show up in a future survey cycle, not this one.
The average American man weighs almost 200 pounds
For American men age 20 and older, the CDC reports these averages:
- Weight: 199.0 pounds
- Height: 68.9 inches, or just under 5 feet 9 inches
- Waist circumference: 103.0 centimeters (about 40.6 inches)
For women age 20 and older, the averages are:
- Weight: 171.8 pounds
- Height: 63.5 inches, or 5 feet 3.5 inches
- Waist circumference: 97.9 centimeters (about 38.5 inches)
That means the average American man weighs about 27 pounds more than the average American woman.
A few notes on what these figures do and do not cover. They describe adults age 20 and older, not the population as a whole. Pregnant women were excluded from the weight, BMI and circumference tabulations. And the CDC publishes waist circumference only in centimeters, so the inch figures above are conversions.
It is also worth knowing how the sample was assembled. The examination response rate for this survey cycle was 25.6%, and the CDC eliminated its usual oversampling by race, Hispanic origin and income to reduce the number of households screened during the pandemic. NHANES remains the gold standard for measured body data—it weighs and measures people rather than asking them to report their own numbers—but figures quoted to a tenth of a pound carry more uncertainty than the decimal point suggests.
Of course, an “average” weight isn’t necessarily an ideal or healthy weight. Height, age, muscle mass, body composition and numerous other factors make a major difference in determining what is healthy for an individual person.
More than 7 in 10 adults are overweight or obese
The broader statistics help put those average weights into perspective.
The CDC reported in February 2026 that during the 2021–2023 survey period, 40.3% of American adults age 20 and older had obesity. Another 32.1% were classified as overweight.
Combined, that means roughly 72% of U.S. adults were either overweight or obese based on the standard body mass index categories used by federal health researchers. (Both figures are unadjusted estimates; the age-adjusted numbers are 40.3% and 31.7%.)
Obesity was especially common among middle-aged Americans. According to a separate NCHS data brief analyzing the same survey, the obesity rate among adults ages 40 to 59 reached 46.4%, compared with 35.5% among adults ages 20 to 39 and 38.9% among those age 60 and older. The same pattern held for both men and women.
Education tracked with the numbers, too. Obesity prevalence was 31.6% among adults with a bachelor’s degree or more, compared with 44.6% among those with a high school diploma or less and 45.0% among those with some college.
Americans weigh considerably more than they once did
Perhaps the most striking part of the data isn’t simply what Americans weigh today. It’s how dramatically the country has changed over the past several decades.
CDC historical data show a long-term increase in obesity in the United States dating back to the 1960–1962 survey period. But the recent trend is more complicated than a straight line upward. Between 2013–2014 and the latest 2021–2023 survey, the age-adjusted obesity rate did not change significantly, holding between roughly 38% and 42%. Severe obesity, meanwhile, kept climbing—from 7.7% to 9.7% on the same age-adjusted basis.
On an unadjusted basis, about 9.4% of American adults have severe obesity, defined as a BMI of 40 or higher. That amounts to nearly one out of every 10 adults.
The researchers also noted that changes between the two most recent survey cycles, 2017–March 2020 and August 2021–August 2023, were not statistically significant. Some early reports suggested obesity spiked during the pandemic; this data did not find a significant change from before to after.
But there is no single “right” weight
It’s tempting to compare your number on the scale with the national average, but the average American weight shouldn’t be treated as a target.
A 199-pound person who is 6 feet 4 inches tall is very different physically from someone weighing the same amount at 5 feet 5 inches. Muscle mass can also substantially affect weight without necessarily indicating excess body fat.
The CDC makes a version of this point itself. Its researchers note that BMI does not measure body fat directly and provides no information about how that fat is distributed, and that body fat can vary by sex, age, and race and Hispanic origin at any given BMI. They keep using it because it is a simple, inexpensive screening tool—not because it is a precise measure of any one person’s health.
That’s one reason doctors frequently consider BMI alongside waist circumference, medical history and other health indicators rather than weight alone.
Still, the national averages provide a useful snapshot of the country.
For now, the simplest answer is this: The average American man weighs about 199 pounds, while the average American woman weighs about 172 pounds.
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