The prevalence of obesity in adults in the United States could rise sharply under a new definition of the condition released earlier this year by the Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology Commission, researchers from Mass General Brigham announced Wednesday.

When applying the new criteria, which expands upon the traditional use of body mass index (BMI) to include measures of body fat distribution, the prevalence of obesity increased from about 40% to about 70% among more than 300,000 people included in the study.

The rise was even more pronounced among older adults, the study found. Additionally, the researchers found that those newly added individuals also had a higher risk of adverse health outcomes.

"We already thought we had an obesity epidemic, but this is astounding," said co-first au

See Full Page