The number of people considered a 'healthy weight' is dropping. Here’s why. - chof 360 news

Talk around weight in the United States has reached a fever pitch thanks to the popularity of injectable GLP-1 medications, which have transformed weight loss treatment. While it seems like we’re getting slimmer as a population, a new report suggests that’s not necessarily the case: It found that the number of people who are considered a “healthy weight” is dropping.

The report, which was published by journal and data platform Epic Research, analyzed the body mass index (BMI) classifications of more than 109 million people who visited a doctor between 2010 and 2024. They found that the rate of people who were classified as having a healthy weight dropped from 27.7% to 23.2% during the 14-year span. At the same time, rates of people classified as having obesity rose 13.6%, though that number has held steady since 2020.

So what exactly is a “healthy weight”? The real definition is a little hazy. Here’s what doctors want you to know about having a healthy weight, plus how to know when you’ve reached it.

The definition of “healthy weight” depends on who you talk to

This particular report focused on healthy weight based on BMI, which is your weight in kilograms divided by your height in meters squared. (The National Institutes of Health has an online calculator in case you want help determining your BMI.)

BMI classifications break down this way:

Normal weight is the same as healthy weight in the report. But BMI is a controversial measurement of health, given that it only looks at height and weight — not different elements like body fat and muscle mass. This can cause some people to be classified as having obesity who are actually healthy, Dr. Kunal Shah, an assistant professor in the division of endocrinology at the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical Center, tells chof360 Life. “You can have football players with a BMI of 50 or 60 [classifying them as having severe obesity], but they’re the pinnacles of athleticism. It doesn’t make sense,” he says.

For most people, BMI can provide a general idea if you’re in a healthy weight range, Dr. Mir Ali, medical director of MemorialCare Surgical Weight Loss Center at Orange Coast Medical Center in Fountain Valley, Calif., tells chof360 Life. “If somebody maintains a BMI between 18.5 and 25, they are less likely to develop health conditions because of their weight,” he says.

But many doctors tend to view “healthy weight” on an individual basis, Shah says. “In general, we consider healthy weight to be where someone is not having any elevation in risk of developing metabolic conditions like diabetes and heart disease,” he says. That can include a normal-weight BMI, or it may factor in other measurements like waist circumference and hip-to-waist ratio, he says.

Mental health is important to consider too, Jen Carter, a sports psychologist and an associate professor at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, tells chof360 Life. “Health is a broad term that includes mental health, and hating ourselves for not fitting into a particular BMI category is not optimal health,” Carter says. “I’m a fan of the Health at Every Size movement that encourages us to be the healthiest we can be, regardless of our weight.”

How to know if you’ve reached a healthy weight

BMI is a tricky way to determine if you’re a healthy weight. “It doesn’t take into account body types, like someone who is very muscular,” Ali says.

The best way to determine if you’re at a healthy weight is to pay attention to how you feel, according to Shah. “When people lose weight, one of the things they usually say is that they have more energy,” he says. If you feel good, you can work out as long as you’d like to and you don’t have health conditions like type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure or heart disease, you’ve likely hit a healthy weight, Shah says. Carter also recommends looking at your sleep habits, how often you’ve been getting sick and how stable your weight is.

That doesn’t mean you should totally ignore the scale. Shah points out that some people can have a distorted view of what their weight should be. But when you combine how you’re feeling, any underlying health conditions and your BMI, he says it can give you a pretty accurate picture of health and weight.

This is different from how doctors viewed healthy weight in the past. “Healthy weight in the past was just based on average calculations in the population, looking at where people fell on that bell-shaped curve,” Ali says.

Now many health care providers have realized that there’s more to weight than that, Shah says. “This is no longer a one-size-fits-all thing,” he says. “In the past, we would just say, ‘Oh, you have a BMI of 30, so you’re obese.’ This has to be customized to the patient.”

Why are fewer people now considered to have a healthy weight?

The report didn’t spell that out. Although rates of severe obesity and overweight seem to have leveled off, the report showed that obesity rates have gone up over the past 14 years.

“Obesity in general has increased over the years,” Ali says. “Most people are leading a sedentary lifestyle and have easier access to unhealthy foods. It can be expensive and difficult to eat healthy.” Ali says those combined factors are “pushing the general population toward a less healthy situation.”

If you’re concerned about your weight, Shah recommends focusing on your activity and eating habits. “There’s nothing that can substitute for a good diet and exercise,” he says. But if you’re not sure if you’re at a healthy weight, Ali suggests talking to a primary care physician. “They can help you calculate what should be a reasonably healthy weight based on your age, weight and height,” he says. From there, Ali says you can come up with a healthy-weight game plan together.