The average American is almost 20 pounds heavier than they were 20 years ago, but even more troublesome is that their perceptions of what their "ideal weight" should be has jumped as well. The weight that Americans says they want to be at has gone up by 10 pounds since 1990, widening the gap between where they are and where they wish they were.

The average American man was only 10 pounds above their ideal weight in 1990; now it's closer to 15. The average woman is 18 pounds above where they want to be. That means Americans in 2011 are not only getting bigger, they're getting farther and farther from their ideal weight. And that's before accounting for the fact that their ideal weight is already 10 pounds higher than it was back in the 1990s. The average man actually weighs 25 pounds above what was considered the ideal weight of 20 years ago.

Read the full story at The Atlantic Wire.