CHESAPEAKE – Despite pushes to fight obesity in the United States, a report finds many people aren’t feeling the burn.

The Trust for  America’s Health, along with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, looked at the issue, ranking states by the percent of obese adults and obese and overweight children. Virginia places 28th and 23rd, respectively, in those categories.

Bottome line: one out of four adults in the Commonwealth is obese, one out of every three children.

Video: Study says 1 in 4 Va adults obese

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Bonnie Tazewell with the Virginia Cooperative Extension’s office in Chesapeake says, "When you're talking about overweight or obesity, you're talking about other risk factors: heart attack, high cholesterol, diabetes, and we're seeing that at an alarming rate in this area."

Tazewell specializes in Family and Consumer Services, guiding people in ways to eat healthy and ways to stretch resources to cover a healthy lifestyle. She, like the TFAH report, believes tough economic times could yield more troubles when it comes to weight management.

"We're finding that people aren't going to the doctor as much,” she tells 13News. “Folks are stressed, and when they're stressed, they tend to eat more, and they don't have the energy to do the physical activity, so they start getting into those comfort foods, or whatever they can, and, basically what they’re eating may not be the healthiest."

As part of her work, Tazewell suggests options won’t break consumers’ budgets. Those include in-season fruits and vegetables, which tend to be affordable, even inexpensive. The vegetables, in particular,  can be added to meals, such as pre-packaged noodles with seasoning packets that are high in salt. Cut down on some of the salt, toss in the vegetables, and you’ve got something that’s more nutritious than when you started. The extension agent also recommends getting to know ingredients, recognizing them by all their names.

"If it don't say 'sugar,'” Tazewell explains, “you know, they say, 'Oh, this is okay,’ but it comes in other forms, so anything with 'o-s-e.'"

"Try to grow it yourself,” Linda Harper laughs, referring to doing a little home gardening. “I think that would be cheaper..."

The mother from Chesapeake keeps tabs on ingredients, spending, and the ways she prepares her meals.

"I catch chicken on sale. I do chicken breasts, whole fryers, and I kind of like, bake that."

Along that same train of thought, Tazewell says, "Keep it as clean as possible, as few additives as possible, not a lot of sauces, and things like that, just a simple plan is the healthiest way to go."