In time for the holidays: US obesity rates drop for 1st time in a decade

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For the first time in over a decade, obesity rates in the United States may finally be heading in the right direction and new weight loss drugs like semaglutide could be part of the reason why.

A new study published Friday in the journal, JAMA Health Forum, found that obesity numbers ticked down slightly from 46% in 2022 to 45.6% in 2023. While only a slight decline, this is the first drop recorded in at least a decade.

“What we’re seeing for the first time is that curve is bending and shows a sign of hope for something that was really a threat to American public health for so many years,” said study co-author and ABC News contributor John Brownstein, who is also the chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital and a professor at Harvard Medical School.

The study reviewed the body mass index (BMIs), a measure of obesity, of 16.7 million U.S. adults over a 10-year period. The average BMI rose annually to 30.24 — which is considered obese — until it plateaued in 2022, then dropped marginally to 30.21 in 2023.

Brownstein and his team noted that women and adults aged 66 to 75 saw the largest decreases in obesity. People living in the South, where they had the highest dispensing rate of weight loss drugs known as GLP-1 receptor agonists, also saw a significant decline in obesity.

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