Merriam-Webster defines obesity as “a condition characterized by the excessive accumulation and storage of fat in the body.”

Now, since many of us have not accepted the fact that we’re putting on a few pounds, or if one might be in denial, here are a few synonyms that describe what it is to be obese: adiposity, chubbiness, corpulency, embonpoint, fat, fatness, fattiness, fleshiness, grossness, corpulence, plumpness, portliness, pudginess, pursiness, rotundity.

I like the last one — rotundity. I usually associate that with some U.S. Senator whose been eating high off the hog in Washington, D.C. and has a drink in one hand and a stogy in the other.

Earlier this week a report suggested, no it warned all of us, that most Americans would be obese by 2030. Here’s how ABC News’ Dr. Maureen Braun explained the warning: “By 2030, more than half of Americans could be obese, resulting in millions of new cases of diabetes, coronary heart disease, and stroke — a constellation of illness that could cost the United States up to $66 billion in treatment and over $500 billion in lost economic productivity.”

It was a summary of a new 124-page report released on Tuesday by the “Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. It’s title? “F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America’s Future.”

At present, 36 percent of us are considered to be obese. By 2030 it is anticipated that 50 percent of us will be fat.

In a state-by-state comparison, Mississippi, which has a fat ratio of 35 percent right now, will be at 67 percent of its population in the fat category. Minnesota? Right now, 26 percent of us are rotund. This study says 55 percent of us will be considered portly.

Oh, which state is the most fit? Colorado. Only 21 percent of the folks in the Rocky Mountain state are plump. However, in 2030 45 percent will need a bigger waist size.

Bottom line? We need to shed a few pounds in the next 18 years so we can, as a state, prove this study wrong.

Keith Hansen