Are recent decreases in adult obesity trends in the United States encouraging or alarming?

Abstract

From 2022 to 2023, there was a slight decrease in the prevalence of obesity among adults in the United States. While the reduced prevalence of obesity may be accompanied with certain public health benefits, including in the South that has a longstanding history of preventable morbidity and mortality driven by adverse social determinants of health, these trends have coincided with the increased use of body mass index (BMI) in medical assessments as well as the rapid ascension of weight loss interventions and medications focused on short-term weight loss. This commentary summarizes the rationale for interpreting these trends with caution, including three recommendations for research and practice. The first recommendation focuses on shifting from body composition to cardiometabolic health, including transitioning from BMI to more robust diagnostic systems that incorporate a variety of cardiovascular, metabolic, anthropometric, and genetic factors into medical assessments and risk classification (e.g., cardiometabolic index). The second recommendation reconsiders weight loss as a clinical outcome by emphasizing gradual lifestyle changes over rapid transformations through personalized and systems interventions. The third recommendation focuses on increasing pharmacovigilance of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist drugs for estimates of misuse and adverse outcomes, especially among high-risk patient populations like eating disorders. The commentary concludes with a synopsis of strategies for each recommendation with the ultimate goal of preventing population-level harms and unintended consequences.