Story highlights Obesity in women has gone up, new studies show, while men have gone unchanged

Efforts to combat weight gain seem to have made little difference, editorial says

(CNN) There doesn't appear to be much headway being made in the battle to curb obesity in the United States, according to a pair of studies released Tuesday.

These figures remain high in spite of the "hundreds of millions of dollars" that have been pumped into research, trials, observational studies, community and hospital programs, and the development of devices and drugs, said an accompanying JAMA editorial

There are also the attempts of schools, communities, companies and places of worship to control weight gain, but the country's three-decades-old obesity epidemic is hanging on strong.

"Although it is impossible to know what the extent of the obesity epidemic would have been without these efforts, the data reported ... certainly do not suggest much success," wrote Dr. Jody Zylke and Dr. Howard Bauchner, the deputy editor and editor in chief, respectively, of JAMA.

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