At least we’re not getting fatter.

The newest obesity numbers are in and, well, this is what passes for victory these days: Americans have had roughly the same rate of obesity for much of the past decade, with a little more than a third of us in need of plus-size clothing.

That includes 17 percent of children, and represents almost no change since 2003.

But is this really progress? We’ve got 78 million obese adults and 12.5 million obese kids, according to these new numbers from the CDC — and tens of millions more are already overweight and ready to join their ranks.

It’s still a massive public health crisis — but every crisis is an opportunity, and this is one opportunity the drug industry can’t wait to sink its fangs into.

Along with a host of bad weight-loss meds awaiting approval, Big Pharma is trying to push meds already on the market for other conditions — including diabetes drugs.

One new study has researchers practically giddy, claiming it shows that the new generation of diabetes meds — GLP-1 agonists like Byetta and Bydureon — can help obese non-diabetics lose weight.

They claim these drugs helped some people lose 20 pounds — and that in practice, they’ve seen patients drop up to 50 pounds while taking them.

But just like scammy fad diet commercials, this one should come with a bold-face warning: RESULTS NOT TYPICAL.

The study in BMJ didn’t find that most people lost 50 pounds. It didn’t even find that they lost 20 pounds — or anything close to it.

In fact, the average weight loss was just 6.4 pounds — and who knows if that’s even permanent. You might have to take the meds forever to keep that weight off.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t think that’s worth getting giddy over — especially when you consider the side effects of these meds: nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and more.

Of course you’ll lose some weight if you can’t keep your food down — and along with those stomach-turning side effects, GLP-1 agonists have been linked to pancreatitis as well as pancreatic and thyroid cancer.

Who wants to risk all that to lose 6.4 pounds over 20 weeks?

Forget meds. There’s a much safer way to lose a lot more weight, and you don’t need to swallow a single pill: Go sugar-free and low in carbs while eating fatty fish, farm-fresh chicken and grass-fed meats.

It might take a little discipline — but it’s still a heck of a lot easier than taking diabetes meds for the rest of your life.

Instead of changing your own habits here in 2012, make one change for someone else: your kids.

Stop giving them cereal.

Even the healthiest cereals are usually just a blend of different kinds of carbs: sugar and some of the worst grains imaginable (and don’t believe those “made with whole grains” labels — because that doesn’t make this stuff any healthier).

Some cereals are more than half sugar.

Environmental Working Group recently took a closer look at the ingredients labels of some of the most common and popular cereals and found that both Kellogg’s Honey Smacks and Post Golden Crisp are more than half sugar by weight — 55.6 percent and 51.9 percent, respectively.

Number three was almost there — Kellogg’s Froot Loops Marshmallow is 48.3 percent sugar.

Froot Loops by itself was already heavy in sugar (41.4 percent, coming in at number 10) — but when they added the marshmallows, they went for the record… and actually fell just a little short.

Better luck next time, Team Froot Loop.

And the Quaker Oats man, who’s supposed to represent old-fashioned purity? He’s actually responsible for FOUR of the top ten most sugar-soaked cereals: three flavors of Cap’n Crunch and something called Oh!s, which appear to be sugar-coated Cheerios.

You can see the full report here, which also features some helpful comparisons — like the fact that those Honey Smacks contain more sugar than a Hostess Twinkie.

Even the healthy-sounding Wheaties Fuel — breakfast of champions, but with “fuel,” right? — has more sugar than that Twinkie.

And a single cup of Honey Nut Cheerios has more sugar than three Chips Ahoy chocolate chip cookies.

When a Twinkie or Chips Ahoy cookies turn out to be the better choice, you know you created something special.

EWG has some alternatives for parents looking for better options — like unfrosted Mini Wheats and original Kix, which I think refers to the kicking and screaming kids do when they find out their Honey Smacks have been replaced by a “healthier” option.

In reality, cereal in general isn’t a healthy option for breakfast. If you’re in charge of mornings in your house, cook up something fresh each day instead — make it something all of you can eat together, and everybody wins.

Forget the low-fat mantra the mainstream has been chanting for generations now, because the consensus is quietly changing.

Now, top researchers from the nation’s leading institutions are singing a new tune, because they’re finally recognizing that fat on the belly isn’t caused by fat on the dinner plate–but by the sugar and other carbs hidden inside the staples of the modern American diet.

An eye-popping report in the Los Angeles Times offers a who’s who of big names joining the Carbohydrate Tea Party: Harvard, Duke, Tufts and UC Davis are throwing the sugar overboard and embracing a common-sense approach that can save millions of lives.

Let’s hope it’s not too late–because the latest research shows that today’s teens are already suffering from the earliest warning signs of sugar overload.

Researchers have found that adolescents who consume the most white stuff already have the cardiovascular risk factors that once appeared only in middle age or beyond.

These sugar-addicted teens have lower levels of HDL (“good”) cholesterol, and higher levels of LDL (“bad”) cholesterol and triglycerides.

Naturally, they’re also far more likely to be overweight and are even showing signs of insulin resistance, putting them at risk for diabetes, according to the study in Circulation.

The researchers used data from the National Health and Nutrition Survey, and found that today’s teens now eat or drink a quarter pound of sugar every single day–nearly double the consumption of kids the same age back in the late 1970s.

And if that keeps up, we’re facing a dark future–because if there’s ever been a single ingredient responsible for more death and disease than sugar, I haven’t seen it.

Eliminating sugar in all its forms, even without following an otherwise strict low- carb diet, would do more for your overall health than any other single dietary change.

And getting rid of the rest of the bad carbs will positively transform you.

But if you don’t want to take my word for it, now you can listen to Harvard:

“If Americans could eliminate sugary beverages, potatoes, white bread, pasta, white rice and sugary snacks, we would wipe out almost all the problems we have with weight and diabetes and other metabolic diseases,” Dr. Walter Willett, chairman of the department of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, told the Times.

Maybe it’s time for the low-carb craze to mount a comeback.

Anyone can shed a few pounds–the hard part is keeping the weight off for good.

A new study lights the way to post-diet success, and all you need to do is avoid the sugars and other bad carbs that probably led to your weight gain in the first place.

Easier said than done, I know–but maybe this study will help give you the motivation you need to finally win the battle of the bulging bellies. Researchers have found that the greatest post-diet success comes to those who stick to foods low on the glycemic index.

Those are generally the low-carb foods that won’t cause spikes in blood sugar levels.

The researchers followed 773 overweight and obese adults from eight European countries who lost an average of 24 pounds during two months of low-fat dieting.

Then, they placed the dieters on one of five different “maintenance” plans: low protein, high glycemic; low protein, low glycemic; high protein, low glycemic; high protein, high glycemic; and a control group that didn’t follow any single plan.

After six months, most of them regained a little weight. But the ones who followed the high-protein, low-glycemic diet regained 2 pounds less than those who ate more carbs and less protein, according to the study in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The study suffered from a high dropout rate–just 548 of the dieters were able to stick with it until the end. But again, the low-carb eaters did best: Just 26 percent of them dropped out, versus 37 percent of the high-carb, low-protein dieters.

The one flaw here is that the glycemic index isn’t always the best way to look at carbs. For example, ice cream and peanut M&Ms rank relatively low, but that doesn’t make them healthy.

If you want an easier time choosing your foods, ditch the charts and get back to basics. Pass on all the bad carbs–especially sugars, starches and refined grains.

Even healthier whole grains can sabotage a diet, so limit them–and even then, only eat them after you’ve reached your weight-loss goal.

And whatever you do, don’t let those sugars sneak back into your life–that’s how dieters fall off the wagon.

In addition to successful weight loss, low-carb diets can also help you to lower your blood pressure, keep your cholesterol levels within a healthy range and even lower your risk for diabetes and heart disease.