Almost 70% of US Adults Would Be Deemed Obese Based on New Definition, Study Finds (theguardian.com)
- Reference: 0179800356
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/10/15/1654239/almost-70-of-us-adults-would-be-deemed-obese-based-on-new-definition-study-finds
- Source link: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/oct/15/almost-70-of-us-adults-would-be-deemed-obese-based-on-new-definition-study-finds
> The traditional definition of obesity, typically based on having a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or greater, has long been contentious, not least as it does not differentiate between fat and muscle.
>
> In an effort to tackle the issue, in January medical experts from around the world called for a new definition to be adopted. This would encompass people either with a BMI greater than 40; or those with a high BMI and at least one raised figure for measures such as waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio, or waist-to-height ratio; or those with two such raised figures regardless of BMI; or those with direct measures of excess body fat based on scans.
>
> In addition, they said obesity should be split into two categories: clinical obesity -- where there are signs of illness -- and pre-clinical obesity, where there are not. Now research suggests the revamped definition could result in a dramatic rise in the prevalence of obesity among adults in the US.
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/oct/15/almost-70-of-us-adults-would-be-deemed-obese-based-on-new-definition-study-finds
Hegseth can't start a draft because (Score:1)
...almost nobody would qualify. Besides, I have bone spurs, my bribed doctor said so.
A simple solution (Score:4, Insightful)
Just tax it. Tax overweight people at a higher tax rate to offset their inevitable health problems.
Re: (Score:2)
Charge by the pound for transportation such as airfare.
Re: (Score:2)
Some airlines actually do that.
Airlines in the South Pacific who run small planes charge large customers by weight. (They have an excess number of large customers.)
Re: (Score:2)
> Just tax it. Tax overweight people at a higher tax rate to offset their inevitable health problems.
Uh, that only works if we're being provided healthcare via the tax money. And that's communism. This is America. We'll just tax 'em hard and use that money to give tax cuts to billionaires.
Re: (Score:2)
That isn't a solution.
Re: (Score:2)
> That isn't a solution.
We're not looking for solutions. We're looking for punishments. That's what America is all about.
Re: (Score:2)
That is one way to price healthy food further and further out of budget.
Re: (Score:2)
That is a amazing leap of speculation.
Re: (Score:2)
American can't even figure out how to apply basic taxes to keep their infrastructure from crumbling, what makes you think they could tax obesity?
Re: A simple solution (Score:2)
Perfect. And when they're taxed, they won't have enough money left for all the eating out and junk, fast food.
Socioeconomic factors. (Score:2)
> Tax overweight people at a higher tax rate {...}
The problem is that overweight people are more likely to come from lower socioeconomic levels. (i.e.: obesity rate are high among poorer people).
So you're putting additional financial burden on people who are already struggling financially.
Re: (Score:2)
What if that obese person is rich? We shouldn't tax them because that's what communists do.
Even better, if a person is rich then it shouldn't be possible to categorize them as obese. I would violate their right to a free lunch.
What about (Score:2)
What about uncoupling mitochondria? Curcumin:
> A 30-minute pretreatment with curcumin reduced mitochondrial coupling efficiency by 17.0 ± 0.4% [1]https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.go... [nih.gov]
A caveat, restoring mitochondria can reactivate latent virus/cancer? Many cancer approaches work via ampk, which requires low energy (lots more ADP than ATP). Some cancers / viruses come back / reactivate / exit latency when their energy levels are restored.
[1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28847726/
Re: What about (Score:2)
Seek professional help. Immediately.
Put Ozempic in the water supply (Score:2)
Or on a slightly more practical note pull some FDA provisions that allow you to run up the patent and get some GLP-1 drugs into generic manufacturing and make it a fully covered thing. Over years and decades it would easily save probably hundreds of billions in healthcare costs.
Speaking at least of my homeland of America it's a goddamned tradition for us to pay and drug our problems away, we're definitely not going to wholesale change our diet and habits.
Re: (Score:2)
Good luck. Health insurance companies won't pay for the drug, what makes you think that the government would?
Re: (Score:2)
It's not expensive to make. Buying out the patent would make it affordable.
Re: (Score:2)
If the govt bought out the patent, competing generics would nominally be selling it near cost of manufacture, which would be rather lower than it is now for other generic rx and otc drugs.
Re: (Score:2)
> drug our problems away, we're definitely not going to wholesale change our diet and habits.
Technically these drugs do change your diet and habits - that's what most of the weight loss comes from. Eating poorly for a while causes a mass die-off of bacteria in your digestive tract that helps with digesting healthy and fiber-rich foods. Those same bacteria actually release their own GLP-1 agonists. We can probably do better than these medications but they aren't a cheap gimmick either - these are drugs that try to make your body function as if it doesn't have a metabolic disorder and it drives be
Ozempic needs to be injected (Score:2)
Sorry to step on your joke, but peptides tend to get destroyed in the stomach. The real point you made is insurance. Ask around. Ozempic is more like 100-200 USD per month in civilized countries...expensive, but manageable. 1200/m is PAINFUL in the USA. The US could negotiate drug prices and Novonordisk and others would make a fuckton of profit in the process by increasing the volume and reliability of payment.
RFK Jr. has the solution (Score:3)
Become a heroin addict for 14 years [1]https://www.pbs.org/newshour/h... [pbs.org]
You'll lose weight.
[1] https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/recounting-heroin-addiction-and-spiritual-awakening-rfk-jr-urges-focus-on-prevention-and-community
Re: (Score:2)
You want to lose weight with drugs? What you want is Crank. [1]https://therecover.com/what-is... [therecover.com]
[1] https://therecover.com/what-is-crank-understanding-methamphetamine-and-its-effects
Re: (Score:2)
Obviously obesity is caused by vaccines. Or maybe Tylenol or circumcision. No, wait. Definitely vaccines.
Re: (Score:2)
It's caused by eating circumcised foreskins.
here's a link outside paywall (Score:2)
Here we are: [1] Definition and diagnostic criteria of clinical obesity [hub.uoa.gr]
[1] https://hub.uoa.gr/wp-content/uploads/2005/02/ClinicalObesity.pdf
I mean, look around. (Score:2)
Is that really an inaccurate assessment? Don't get me wrong, RFK is certainly ... odd .... but it's not tough to observe the fact more people are chunkers than not. I think people just have trouble with the connotation of obese, rather than face the reality of being obese.
Re:I mean, look around. (Score:5, Informative)
> Almost 70% of US Adults Would Be Deemed Obese Based on New Definition, Study Finds
Only 70% of US Adults Would Be Deemed Obese Based on New Definition, Study Finds
FTFY :)
Re: I mean, look around. (Score:2)
You fixed that. Nice job!
Re: (Score:2)
Real.
Re: (Score:2)
Was the body positivity movement not just as bonkers as the RFK Jr. crazy stuff? We have these crazy extremes yelling stuff at us, and most of us know we just need to eat fewer calories and get some exercise.
Re: (Score:2)
Much of the body positivity movement just says you shouldn't be mean to fat people, or anyone else, because of their body shape. That's what the words mean: body positivity.
There are some crazy body positivity types who actually claim that any amount of obesity is just fine and has no adverse health implications at all, despite mountains of evidence to the contrary (although I haven't met any that think anorexia is cool). That is indeed RFK Jr style crazy.
Re: (Score:2)
"being unhealthy is okay" is not a good message, but "you don't have to feel like shit because your health issues make you heavier" shouldn't be controversial. Unfortunately deciding what category someone is in by eyesight is nigh impossible.
Re: (Score:2)
Correction: _determining_ the category (accurately) is impossible. _deciding_ is all too easy.
Re: (Score:2)
> I think people just have trouble with the connotation of obese
What's the connotation of fucking fat bastards?
Re: (Score:2)
Unintentional Austin Powers reference. Love it.
You young people wouldn't know this.. (Score:3)
.. but the standard back in the good old days was if you could "pinch more than an inch" you were a fatty.
Re: (Score:2)
And then they would be denied health insurance?
Who ? (Score:1)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UP0ozXF2VMY
Please, please, please... (Score:2)
the revamped definition will NOT result in a dramatic rise in the prevalence of obesity. It will only change the perception and statistics.
Understand?
Homer Simpson With A Large Foam Finger (Score:2)
"We're number 1, we're number 1!"
So John Cena is obese? (Score:2)
Why not just use bodyfat percentage, like those in the fitness community? BMI is bullshit and needs to be purged with fire. When I had washboard abs (past tense, sadly), my doctor was warning me about my BMI because I work out....she looked at me and changed the recommendation, but her computer program was telling her to warm me about my weight. It's fucking stupid and inaccurate and easily skewed by making good decisions. Bodyfat% is much better...it's not as easy to measure, but dexa scans are pretty
New definitions won't change a thing (Score:2)
What we need is sanctions on fast food companies.
Re: (Score:2)
> What we need is sanctions on fast food companies.
That might be a start, but I suspect it is a wider problem.
In modern America (and increasingly in other countries), you need to go out of your way to get exercise and eat healthily. If you lapse, you revert to a default of what is available, which is high in sugar and fat, and a life of sitting down.
And it's not intrinsically an American problem, it is a modern American problem. The attendees at Woodstock were not obese.
a growing trend (Score:2)
We don't like the conclusion, so change the metrics by which we came to the conclusion.
A bit like "Our students can't pass the standardized test, so instead of fixing our education system we're going to dumb down the tests."
Same principle. Don't like the results? Change the test!
Moving the goalposts. (Score:2)
Just like with most mental conditions, of which everyone now has one.
Re: (Score:3)
If people were anywhere near goalposts even occasionally, there would likely be a lot less obesity.
Re: (Score:3)
Or if they actually moved those goalposts. Those things are heavy.
hang on I need to catch my breath (Score:3)
Don't normally walk this far.
Re: Moving the goalposts. (Score:2)
Goalposts remind me of golden brown french fries. I think Iâ(TM)ll order the extra large and reward myself for being sedentary all day. I did blink and moves my mouse some.
Re: (Score:3)
> Those things are heavy.
The goalposts? Or Americans?
Re: (Score:1)
In the old days one either vented mental issues by beating the shit out of their own family, and/or becoming a babbling religious nut.
Re: (Score:2)
> In the old days one either vented mental issues by beating the shit out of their own family, and/or becoming a babbling religious nut.
The true overachievers did both!
One thing life has taught me (Score:2)
Is that crazy is very very common. My mother for example was a high-functioning alcoholic and that was largely due to tons of undiagnosed mental illnesses. I myself probably should have been in a variety of programs to deal with various forms of ADHD and light autism but my mother being a bit of a loon chose to move us to another district where the school didn't have the resources to do all that. And most of my friends and family exhibit some form of obvious mental illnesses.
Basically in America we don'
Re: (Score:2)
There are other forms of crazy that also motivate self-cutting. Some forms of dissociative identity disorder include strong feelings of being fake, as in not a real person. One might think they are a robot or an animated manikin or similar. Of course this sounds unrealistic (and unlikely) to most of us because we don't experience this. But for people who suffer these episodes, they are extremely disturbing.
So they cut themselves to see their own blood. It helps alleviate the anxiety of the condition.
Re: (Score:2)
if they just moved the dessert tray americans wouldnt be so obese,
Re: (Score:2)
It's not obvious overeating that is the issue for most. Most people are forced into relatively sedentary careers with long commutes, and it's worse the more education you have. An excess 100 calories a day adds up to 10 lbs of weight gain a year. It doesn't even take much activity to reverse that deficit. And then if you have kids, there is pressure to always be carting them around from one after-school activity to another. A home-cooked meal is unlikely because there is no time. Even if you want to e
Re: (Score:2)
Most people are forced into relatively sedentary careers with long commutes
Because working from home would be completely different with the refrigerator only feet away or not having to do much more than roll out of bed.
Re: (Score:2)
at least working at home you can take the time you're not commuting and do something else
how many folks actually do so, I do not know
Re: (Score:2)
Even if you want to eat healthy, there isn't really much "fast" food that isn't something like burgers and fries.
If all you look for is burgers and fries that's all you'll find. It's easy in most towns and cities to find Mexican, Italian or Chinese take out if you just make a little effort, and other ethnic foods as well once you're living in a real city. All you have to do is look.
cars. (Score:2)
> {...} into relatively sedentary careers with long commutes , and it's worse the more education you have. {...} And then if you have kids, there is pressure to always be carting them around from one after-school activity to another.
> tl;dr It's a cultural problem, but it's not generally an eating or self control problem.
I agree on the "cultural" problem part, though my own impression is that the insane-level of car-centricity also plays a role.
contrast: I also have a high education and a computer desktop job. I do spend 1 hour commuting each day by bicycle . Here around it's much more bike-able than in the US. Lots of parents here around have cargo bikes, kid seats, etc. to bring their kids (and I'll probably invest into something similar once our daughter is old enough for after-school activities). Whenever my wife plays t
Re: (Score:2)
Not the first time. The standards for BMI were changed in the 90s, creating millions of new obese people to sell weight loss drugs to.
No goalposts moved (Score:2)
Deaths from heart attacks have gone down over the last few decades (even in the US). But more people than ever suffer from chronic heart disease.
Is it a scam to sell pharmaceuticals, or just a consequence of addressing the immediate life-threatening condition without getting to the root cause?
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah it is, just moving them to the obvious place they should be. But hey that's medicine for you. We learn things and move the goalposts to where they provide a meaningful medical basis for making decisions and treating people. You can thank those goal posts not being stuck in place for living in a time where the average life expectancy is where it is now.
Re: (Score:2)
Wah, BMI is a stupid measure because I am all muscles!
Okay, we came up with much better criteria based on clinically validated measures like waist to hip ratio.
Wah, moving the goalposts! Now pass me the cheetos.
False dichotomy actually (Score:2)
From NIMH:
> Any mental illness (AMI) is defined as a mental, behavioral, or emotional disorder. AMI can vary in impact, ranging from no impairment to mild, moderate, and even severe impairment (e.g., individuals with serious mental illness as defined below).
> Serious mental illness (SMI) is defined as a mental, behavioral, or emotional disorder resulting in serious functional impairment, which substantially interferes with or limits one or more major life activities.
We could live in a world where the vast majority of people have some type of identifiable mental illness, but isn't impaired or debilitated by it.
Statistically, we can look at populations with some identify condition. Such as obesity, hypertension, etc and make a statistical connection to likely outcomes in those groups. Even if an individual is not impaired or at put at risk by their obesity, a significant number of people in the same group are at an elevated risk if not already impaired.
It's wro