The most recent Morbidity and Mortality Weekly report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention includes the first county-by-county survey of obesity nationwide, and it found that South Carolina has some of the highest rates of obesity and diabetes.

The very highest rates were in Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia, where high rates of obesity and diabetes were reported in more than 80 percent of the counties.

The rates were only slightly less, about 75 percent of the counties, in South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.

Researchers think there are probably several reasons for the higher rates in the Southeast and Appalachia: a culture of fried and fatty foods; lack of exercise; and higher poverty levels, because more healthful food also tends to be more expensive.

Ray Kendrick of Columbia said he knows exactly what the survey is talking about. When he was in fifth grade, he weighed 200 pounds and would feel self-conscious when he would go to the mall.

"I would feel like a minority," he said. "I would be the fat kid, and everybody would look and say, ‘Gosh, that guy's fat!' And everybody was thinner. And today it's exactly the opposite."

Kendrick thinks it's now acceptable to be fat.

At the beginning of 2004, he weighed 310 pounds. He decided it was time to make a change after his doctor told him he wouldn't live as long if he continued on the path he was on.

"I had high blood pressure. I was on medication for it. High cholesterol. I had pre-diabetes. He said I was close to diabetic," Kendrick said.

He started slowly, walking on a treadmill and then walking faster. Once he could do that, he would walk and then jog a little. After that became easy, he would jog some more. He also started working out in the gym, because building lean muscle helps speed up the metabolism and burn fat.

In about a year, Kendrick had dropped from 310 pounds to 175. He's now a personal trainer.

"When I talk to people that are obese and come in here as training clients and prospective clients, I know exactly how they feel," he said.

The CDC hopes to make local communities more aware of their specific problems so they can focus on fighting them.

Kendrick's advice is to start slowly and stick with it.

"I didn't jump in the gym and go all out the first day, you know? I set small goals," he said.