For years, weight problems charges within the US have gone in a single course: up. From the primary yr it was launched, Gallup’s Nationwide Well being and Nicely-Being Index has discovered that the share of US adults reporting weight problems has climbed and climbed, rising from 25.5 p.c in 2008 to 39.9 p.c 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 combat weight acquire. However from the $33 billion Individuals spend every year on weight reduction merchandise and providers to authorities efforts like first woman 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 imagine the rise in weight problems could also be all however biologically inescapable, regardless of the grave well being dangers that accompany it.
However perhaps not. In response to the most recent outcomes from Gallup’s survey, self-reported weight problems has began to fall, declining by almost 3 factors to 37 p.c in 2025. The self-reporting half is a vital limitation — folks’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 number of the earliest proof that the US might lastly be turning a nook on one of many largest well being crises of the trendy age.
And the primary motive it seems to be occurring isn’t as a result of weight-loss consultants have stumbled upon a brand new weight-reduction plan that all the time works (we haven’t and doubtless 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 seemingly due to the rising use of glucagon-like peptide-1 agonists, higher often called GLP-1 medication 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 medication tended to shave off only some proportion factors of physique weight, and so they got here with robust trade-offs and fast weight rebound. The brand new medication, which have been initially developed to deal with diabetes, are concentrating on the biology that makes weight so onerous to lose and hold off: They dial down starvation within the mind, gradual gastric emptying, and enhance post-meal insulin signaling. In massive randomized trials, semaglutide 2.4 mg — the lively ingredient utilized in medicines like Ozempic — produced about 15 p.c common weight reduction over 68 weeks when paired with fundamental life-style help. Different combos have reached as a lot as 20 p.c on increased doses.
These impact sizes are sufficiently big that, when even a modest share of adults use them, you can begin to see motion within the inhabitants information. And as additional information from Gallup reveals, increasingly more Individuals try these medication, with the survey discovering that greater than 12 p.c of adults reported taking them within the second and third quarters of 2025, up from lower than 6 p.c in early 2024.
And whereas a lot of the media protection round these medication has targeted 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 motive to be prescribed the GLP-1 drug Wegovy, grounded in outcomes from a serious trial that confirmed fewer coronary heart assaults, strokes, and cardiovascular deaths in adults with weight problems or chubby 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 increase 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 can be huge. Weight problems multiplies threat throughout almost each main explanation for loss of life; even small, sustained declines in prevalence translate into tens of millions fewer folks residing 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 somewhat would characterize important aid.
However we’re a great distance from fixing this drawback. For one factor, as efficient as they’re, these medication behave extra like statins than antibiotics: They work whilst you take them. When folks 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 positive about a number of the longer-term results of the medication, which can embody muscle loss and adjustments to intercourse drives. And don’t overlook the four-figure month-to-month facet impact on the pockets if GLP-1s must 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 folks.
Chances are high, although, that the present era of GLP-1s is the worst and costliest we’ll ever have. Drug corporations 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 p.c of the American public has some type of needle phobia (or trypanophobia, for many who need an amazing Scrabble phrase).
I’ll admit there’s one thing uncomfortable in regards to the thought of fixing weight problems primarily by a drug. In any case, as Well being Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is fond of claiming, can’t we repair weight problems by 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 up to date setting is one that’s closely weighted towards the obesogenic. GLP-1 medication appear to supply the perfect probability to tilt the scales again in our favor.
A model of this story initially appeared within the Good Information publication. Join right here!
