As we get fatter, products get bigger

With all due respect, we're a nation of fatties. Thirty-six percent of Americans were obese in 2010 and a new projection says that will balloon to 42% in 2030 if we keep stuffing our faces the way we do.

The percentage of people who are 100 or more pounds overweight is expected to nearly double to 11%.

U.S. businesses are adapting. We're not just talking about companies that specialize in selling seat belt extenders, plus-size coffins, extra-wide toilet seats and "O" cup bras. For some products, a larger size has become the new standard. (Post continues below.)

Here are some of the ways businesses are adjusting: 

• Movie theater seats are as much as 26 inches wide, 6 more than the standard size in the 1980s.
• "Big and tall" school furniture is outselling the standard size, CNN reports. 
• Manufacturers of child safety seats for cars have upped their weight limits.
• Ambulances can haul more weight. For instance, "Texas ambulance service provider Medstar upgraded most of its fleet of industry standard Ford chassis to accommodate obese patients in March 2011," Everyday Health says.
• Hospitals are installing surgery tables that can support heavier patients, Also, Reuters says, "The University of Alabama at Birmingham's hospital, the nation's fourth largest, has widened doors, replaced wall-mounted toilets with floor models able to hold 250 pounds or more, and bought plus-size wheelchairs (twice the price of regulars) as well as mini-cranes to hoist obese patients out of bed."
• Carmakers are also adjusting. More vehicles have rearview cameras, which help drivers who can't turn around to see when they're backing up. Hondas have wider seats, and the grab handles in Mercedeses are being strengthened to handle more weight, says Motor Trend. Just in case you're interested, Consumer Reports has identified the best vehicles for larger drivers. (It takes an extra 938 million gallons of gasoline a year for cars to haul all the extra weight around, by the way.) 
• Seats at newer venues like Yankee Stadium are a couple inches wider.
• Revolving doors are 2 feet wider than they used to be, the Sun Sentinel of Florida says.
• Next year, new Amtrak dining cars will accommodate bigger people, and New Jersey Transit is adding width to its seats. The New York Times adds, "… the Federal Transit Administration has proposed to raise the standard for bus testing to 175 pounds and 1.75 square feet per passenger, from 150 pounds and 1.5 square feet."
• Crash test dummies might get bigger too. That was recommended by a new study that "finds that a moderately obese driver faces a 21% increased risk of death in a severe automobile crash, while the risk of not surviving the crash increases to 56% for 'morbidly obese' drivers," MSN Autos says.

Surely the cost of some of this will be borne by all of us. What's now better understood is how much our unhealthy weight is adding to the nation's health care costs -- an extra $190 billion a year in 2005 dollars, according to a new study. That's slightly more than 20% of the total, "or to put in more understandable terms for Americans, (the cost of) about 62 billion Big Macs that year," Dino Grandoni wrote on The Atlantic.

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And, the Harvard School of Public Health says, "Looking ahead, researchers have estimated that by 2030, if obesity trends continue unchecked, obesity-related medical costs alone could rise by $48 (billion) to $66 billion a year in the U.S."

You can bet that more employers will require obese workers (and those who smoke) to pay higher premiums for health insurance. The New York Times explains:

Current regulations allow companies to require workers who fail to meet specific standards to pay up to 20% of their insurance costs. The federal health care law raises that amount to 30% in 2014 and, potentially, to as much as half the cost of a policy.

More from MSN Money:

• Obesity: The next investment driver
• What if you got hit by a bus?
• Does being poor make you fat?
• Confessions of a fat guy
• Long-term care: How much will it cost?
• 'Fat guy' stocks see big gains