For years, weight problems charges within the US have gone in a single route: up. From the primary 12 months it was launched, Gallup’s Nationwide Well being and Properly-Being Index has discovered that the share of US adults reporting weight problems has climbed and climbed, rising from 25.5 % in 2008 to 39.9 % in 2022. That survey caught the final leg of an epidemic that has been spreading for many years, with estimated weight problems prevalence tripling over the previous 60 years.
It’s not that the nation hasn’t tried to battle weight achieve. However from the $33 billion Individuals spend every year on weight reduction merchandise and companies to authorities efforts like first girl Michelle Obama’s Let’s Transfer marketing campaign or Make America Wholesome Once more, little has labored. Many medical doctors and sufferers got here to consider the rise in weight problems could also be all however biologically inescapable, regardless of the grave well being dangers that accompany it.
However possibly not. In keeping with the most recent outcomes from Gallup’s survey, self-reported weight problems has began to fall, declining by practically 3 factors to 37 % in 2025. The self-reporting half is a vital limitation — individuals’s reporting of their weight tends to be imprecise — and we’ll want extra definitive proof from the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention to make certain, nevertheless it’s a few of the earliest proof that the US could lastly be turning a nook on one of many greatest well being crises of the trendy age.
And the principle purpose it seems to be taking place isn’t as a result of weight-loss consultants have stumbled upon a brand new weight loss plan that all the time works (we haven’t and possibly by no means will) or as a result of we’ve managed to ban all unhealthy junk meals (we haven’t and virtually actually by no means will). It’s possible due to the rising use of glucagon-like peptide-1 agonists, higher generally known as GLP-1 medicine like Ozempic and Wegovy.
What’s modified is we now have extremely efficient weight-loss medicines working at a scale that we’ve by no means seen earlier than.
Older weight-loss medicine tended to shave off just a few proportion factors of physique weight, they usually got here with powerful trade-offs and fast weight rebound. The brand new medicine, which have been initially developed to deal with diabetes, are focusing on the biology that makes weight so onerous to lose and preserve off: They dial down starvation within the mind, sluggish gastric emptying, and enhance post-meal insulin signaling. In giant randomized trials, semaglutide 2.4 mg — the energetic ingredient utilized in medicines like Ozempic — produced about 15 % common weight reduction over 68 weeks when paired with primary way of life assist. Different mixtures have reached as a lot as 20 % on increased doses.
These impact sizes are large enough that, when even a modest share of adults use them, you can begin to see motion within the inhabitants knowledge. And as additional knowledge from Gallup reveals, an increasing number of Individuals are attempting these medicine, with the survey discovering that greater than 12 % of adults reported taking them within the second and third quarters of 2025, up from lower than 6 % in early 2024.
And whereas a lot of the media protection round these medicine has centered on weight and look, the well being advantages appear to go a lot additional. In 2024 the Meals and Drug Administration added cardiovascular threat as a purpose to be prescribed the GLP-1 drug Wegovy, grounded in outcomes from a significant trial that confirmed fewer coronary heart assaults, strokes, and cardiovascular deaths in adults with weight problems or obese and established coronary heart illness. The FDA’s motion additionally opened a door for Medicare protection in sufferers with heart problems — an early signal that entry for these costly medicines might develop past the well-insured.
The upside of downsizing — and the uncomfortable side effects
It’s nonetheless early days, but when the nationwide weight problems curve retains bending down, the advantages could be monumental. Weight problems multiplies threat throughout practically each main reason for dying; even small, sustained declines in prevalence translate into hundreds of thousands fewer individuals dwelling with diabetes, coronary heart illness, sleep apnea, and painful joint illness — and billions saved in medical prices over time. The CDC pegs direct medical spending tied to weight problems at roughly $173 billion. Turning that curve even a little bit would symbolize important reduction.
However we’re a good distance from fixing this drawback. For one factor, as efficient as they’re, these medicine behave extra like statins than antibiotics: They work when you take them. When individuals cease, weight regain is frequent.
And GLP-1s do include uncomfortable side effects that for some sufferers have been severe sufficient to result in discontinuation. Scientists additionally nonetheless aren’t certain about a few of the longer-term results of the medicine, which can embody muscle loss and modifications to intercourse drives. And don’t overlook the four-figure month-to-month facet impact on the pockets if GLP-1s have to be paid for out of pocket. Weight problems is already linked to decrease socioeconomic standing, and that disparity might worsen if GLP-1s stay out of attain for all however high-income individuals.
Likelihood is, although, that the present era of GLP-1s is the worst and costliest we’ll ever have. Drug firms are already experimenting with tablet types of the drugs, which might make dosing extra exact and decrease the barrier to entry: as a lot as 20 % of the American public has some type of needle phobia (or trypanophobia, for many who need an incredible Scrabble phrase).
I’ll admit there’s one thing uncomfortable in regards to the concept of fixing weight problems primarily via a drug. In any case, as Well being Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is fond of claiming, can’t we repair weight problems via more healthy meals and extra train? However whereas our meals system might certainly be improved and most of us don’t get sufficient train, it’s not as if we haven’t tried, whether or not as people or as a rustic. The straightforward reality is that the modern atmosphere is one that’s closely weighted towards the obesogenic. GLP-1 medicine appear to supply the very best probability to tilt the scales again in our favor.
A model of this story initially appeared within the Good Information publication. Join right here!
