December 2, 2025 — This is huge news and we’ve been waiting for it a very long time. For the first time ever, the World Health Organization (WHO) is embracing obesity treatment in a new global guidance issued yesterday. From the head of WHO, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, came words we wondered if we would ever hear: “Our new […]
November 2, 2025 — The headlines won’t stop. “Obesity rates are falling and it’s almost certainly because of Ozempic,” says the Futurism banner. Vox tells us “the Ozempic effect is finally showing up in obesity data.” So can it be true that use of GLP-1s is lowering obesity prevalence? The short answer is no. Not now. Probably not ever. […]
October 15, 2025 — The World Medical Association (WMA) has just taken a significant step forward in how the world’s medical community understands and responds to obesity. Its newly adopted Statement on Obesity, approved this week at the WMA General Assembly in Porto, reframes obesity not as a social or lifestyle problem, but as a complex, chronic disease that […]
October 9, 2025 — At the annual meeting of the American College of Surgeons this week, six smart people debated the future of metabolic surgery versus medicines in the treatment of obesity. The interest in this debate is unmistakable. Our newsfeed is full of it. The undercurrent seems to be an implicit contest. Which is best? Which will prevail? […]
August 3, 2025 — YouGov released some fascinating new survey research on Friday that shows GLP-1 awareness rising sharply and a profound shift in views of obesity as this happens. Dramatic Growth in Awareness Two years ago, only 23% of U.S. adults knew “a lot” about semaglutide. Now, that number has grown to 41%. Total awareness is now up […]
July 29, 2025 — We have a problem with the word obesity. The we in this thought is all of us, because after decades of watching the prevalence of obesity grow, people are still phobic about obesity when it comes close to home. Research tells us that obesity is not the worst word we can use to talk about […]
June 21, 2025 — “It takes a village to create standards of care,” said Nuha Ali El Sayed as she opened a symposium on the emerging standards of care for obesity. Truer words were never spoken. Defining these standards is tricky. That’s because they they need to reflect both what is desirable and a standard that good health professionals […]
January 23, 2025 — It was easy to see this coming. Our top prediction for the new year was that the Lancet Commission on Clinical Obesity would be big news and the spark for a big debate. The news splash was unmistakable. From 92 countries all over the world, more than 3,000 persons lined up for the launch event. […]
January 15, 2025 — We’ve been waiting for this. And judging by the initial responses, the world is ready for it. The Lancet Commission on Clinical Obesity has made it official: The clinical disease of obesity is all about health. Not size, not appearance, not BMI. This global consensus report published at long last late yesterday in Lancet Diabetes […]
January 1, 2025 — Thankfully, 2024 is behind us now and we have a blank slate for a whole new year ahead of us. But what can we expect? Well, proverbial (probably Danish) wisdom tells us “prediction is difficult, especially if it’s about the future.” Nonetheless, here are our top five predictions about what we will see in 2025 […]
