Making Our List for ObesityWeek in Atlanta

We’re packing our bags and scanning the meeting app for ObesityWeek in Atlanta, November 4-7. This promises to be a very intense week, with the biggest attendance yet for this signature meeting of the Obesity Society. The agenda for the week has a lot of options and we are still processing them all. But for starters, here is a list of ten themes you can look for in the week to come.

1. New Oral Obesity Medicines

It’s becoming clear that less expensive, oral obesity medicines may be the next big thing in obesity. A symposium on Wednesday at 10 am in the Sydney Marcus Auditorium will provide a deep dive into the pivotal clinical studies for one of these, orforglipron. Lilly is due to submit this to FDA for approval before the end of the year. There’s quite a buzz about the possibility of a super-fast-track review for this one.

Not to be left out, Novo Nordisk will be presenting new data on improvements in cardiovascular risk factors from its pivotal studies of oral semaglutide for obesity on Wednesday at 8:15 am in A411-A412. This new oral therapy is already under review at FDA.

2. Targeting Amylin

All the talk about new obesity medicines has been all about “GLP-1s.” But signs are that amylin will soon be a hot topic. In a symposium on Thursday morning (8 am, Sidney Marcus Auditorium) will give us an overview of amylin agonism for obesity therapy and a detailed view of the phase 2 data for eloralintide. This will be the the first good look at how well this drug might work.

3. Defining Clinical Obesity

The Lancet Commission caused quite a stir this year by proposing to draw a line between clinical and preclinical obesity. We’ll have two good chances to take a reading on this hot topic. Tuesday at 3:30 pm in A411-412, Donna Ryan and Fatima Cody Stanford will debate the merits of this. And then on Thursday at 8:30 am in the International Ballroom at the Omni, David Cummings and Faith Anne Heeren will examine the implications of all this for public health and policy.

4. Investing in Food Policy

With all the talk about dramatic advances in obesity treatment, does anyone still care about food policy? You bet we do. In the Omni International Ballroom on Wednesday at 1:30 pm, Barry Popkin and Kristina Lewis will be discussing the investment we should be making in this issue. Then on Thursday at 1:30 pm in A313-A314, the debate on healthy foods in the SNAP program should prompt some lively discussion.

5. Heart Failure

It’s plain to clinicians that advanced obesity medicines have the potential to redefine many aspects of care for heart failure. In a key lecture on Wednesday at 5:30 pm in A411-A412, David Lefer will present a view of how this is rewriting the playbook for care of these patients.

6. The Obesity Journal Symposium

Every year the journal Obesity selects a few of its finest papers for presentation in this symposium. This year is no exception. Eight papers in this symposium at 8 am on Thursday in A313-A314 will cover such a range of topics that it may take us days to process.

7. Blackburn Symposium on Ultra-Processed Foods

Ultra-processed foods are the consensus bad boys of nutrition and presumed culprits taking much blame for obesity. In this symposium at 10 am on Thursday in A411-412, you’ll get some actual science instead of pop nutrition hype. Make time for it.

8. Turning Down the Volume on Food Noise

Our hunger for better insight on the phenomenon of food noise might find a little satisfaction in a Thursday symposium at 3:30 pm in the Omni International Ballroom.

9. Understanding Obesity

It may seem odd, but the understanding of obesity as a complex chronic disease is something that way too many people struggle with. Sometimes the misconceptions are explicit. More often they are implicit. The Presidential Plenary at 5:30 pm Tuesday in the Sidney Marcus Auditorium will bring us perspective from three past presidents of TOS on this subject. Key Lecturer Hanieh Yaghootkar on Friday at 10 am in A411-A412 will bring a perspective on the heterogeneity of obesity through the lens of multi-omic and imaging analysis. Obesity is not just one disease.

10. Late-Breaking Data

Finally, you must note that the late-breaking research to be presented at ObesityWeek in Atlanta is not yet out. Watch this space for a few surprises.

Click here for more about ObesityWeek 2025 and look for us in Atlanta.

Giant Grouper in the Georgia Aquarium of Atlanta, photograph by Diliff, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0

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November 1, 2025