Key Takeaways

A new definition of obesity could dramatically increase the number of Americans with the conditionObesity rose from around 40% to nearly 70% under the new definitionThe increase was driven by adoption of newer measures like waist circumference, waist-to-height ratio and waist-to-hip ratio

THURSDAY, Oct. 16, 2025 (HealthDay News) — A new definition of obesity could dramatically increase the number of Americans considered obese.

Under the new definition, the prevalence of obesity rose from around 40% to nearly 70% among more than 300,000 people participating in a long-term health study, researchers reported Oct. 15 in JAMA Network Open .

The new definition takes into account additional measures of excess body fat rather than just relying on body mass index (BMI). BMI is a

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