The findings have wide-reaching implications for the nation’s health and medical costs as it faces a growing burden of weight-related diseases. Americans are becoming overweight or obese at younger ages than in the past. Both conditions can raise the risk of diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease, and shorten life expectancy. Particularly alarming is the steep rise among children, more than one in three of whom are now overweight or obese. Without aggressive intervention, the forecast is for the number of overweight and obese people to continue to go up reaching nearly 260 million people in 2050.