Nearly 1 in 10 American adults qualified as severely obese in a sample ending in 2023, according to new data from the CDC.

Why it matters: Obesity ranks at or near the top of Americans’ public health concerns and is fueling a surge of demand for GLP-1 drugs.

• The CDC’s population data distinguishes between severely obese — having a body mass index of 40 or higher, which can lead to conditions like Type 2 diabetes and heart disease — and obese.

What they found: Obesity and severe obesity rates for U.S. adults have risen sharply in recent decades.

• More than 40% qualified as obese in a representative sample of adults age 20 and older taken between August 2021 and August 2023. That’s up from 30.5% in the 1999-2000 sample.
• Severe obesity rates reached 9.7% in 2023, up from 4.7% in 2000.
• The percentage of overweight adults dropped slightly from 34% at the start of the study period to 31.7% by mid-2023.

The intrigue: This data stops right as demand for GLP-1 drugs began to skyrocket.

• The FDA approved Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy for weight management in 2021, and Eli Lilly’s Zepbound for obesity treatment in 2023. Compounded GLP-1s from telehealth companies have also become more available in the years since.