Study Shows 75 Percent of US Adults May Meet New Criteria for Obesity
Reporting Monday, media cited a study in JAMA Network Open showing that when waist-based measurements are combined with body mass index (BMI), more than three-quarters of U.S. adults meet the threshold for obesity—nearly double the rate identified by BMI alone, which sits at roughly 40%.
The study analyzed federal health survey data from 2017 to 2023 and was led by scientists affiliated with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard University, Yale University, and Yale New Haven Health.
“BMI is the standard measure for determining criteria for obesity. It’s the most widely known metric,” said Dr. Erica Spatz, a cardiologist at Yale School of Medicine and a co-author of the study, in comments to media.
She cautioned that BMI fails to capture fat distribution and related risks. Adipose tissue, she noted, “is more associated with high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease.”
‘Most significant chronic disease’
The analysis is based on a newly proposed obesity framework released earlier this year by The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology Commission. That model incorporates waist circumference and related ratios and has received backing from more than 70 medical organizations globally.
When researchers applied the updated criteria to a nationally representative sample of more than 14,000 individuals—reflecting nearly 238 million U.S. adults—they estimated that 75.2% would be classified as having obesity.
The findings highlight the magnitude of the public health challenge, said Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, who was not involved in the research.
“We do have a major problem. Obesity is by far the most significant chronic disease in human history,” she told media.
The study’s authors emphasized that additional research is needed before the revised definition is widely adopted, pointing to data limitations and the importance of developing age-specific standards, particularly for older adults.
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