A new report gives D.C. children a dubious distinction: Nearly one in four of those ages 10 to 17 is overweight, making them the heaviest kids in the country.

A “fat belt” now stretches through the South and is spreading into the Southwest. Among the states with the heftiest children are West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Texas, South Carolina, Mississippi, Louisiana and New Mexico.

Children in Maryland and Virginia are slightly slimmer overall: About 14 percent of those ages 10 to 17 are overweight in Virginia, 13 percent in Maryland.

[Read](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/24/AR2007082401713.html “Read the Story”) (Washington Post)