Nearly three-quarters of adults and almost half of all teens and young adults in the United States are overweight or obese, according to a Dec. 7, 2024, study published in the Lancet, a leading medical journal. Amid this concerning trend and the emergence of new weight-loss medications, obesity remains a significant epidemic in the nation, with teenagers uniquely handling its challenges alongside academic and social pressures.
Unhealthy weights, defined as having a body mass index of 25-30 (overweight) or 30 and above (obese), are linked to a range of serious medical issues, with diabetes being one of the most common. While genetics can significantly contribute to obesity, nutrition also plays a crucial role.
Senior Brayden Kenny noted that a major factor contributing to this epidemic is the way food is perceived in the United States.
“I think that in general we as a society have lost a healthy relationship with food,” Brayden said. “I think there’s a lot of pushing for economic gain, fast food — quick, easy, fast — and I think just that whole notion has pushed us further away from healthy choices and leading a healthy lifestyle.”
Mona Dwarakanathan, a board-certified obesity medicine physician and Lab parent, highlighted the accessibility of ultra-processed food in the nation, noting that companies have mastered creating addictive flavor profiles.
Alongside nutrition, she touched on the importance of exercise — not only for weight management, but also for stress reduction, reducing the need for the body to lean on comfort mechanisms. Students especially can feel this stress with academic pressure, leading to late nights and lack of sleep.
“Exercise will then lead to a change in dietary behaviors and perhaps reward behaviors, be it food, alcohol, drugs, whatever it may be, leading to a healthier lifestyle, and perhaps leading to a healthier weight,” Dr. Dwarakanathan said.
Brayden said physical activity has positively shaped his fitness and mental well-being.
“I lift or do some sort of physical activity every day,” Brayden said. “It kind of keeps me sane, takes me away from school, everything else. I can kind of live in my own world.”
As obesity rates continue to climb, the use of weight-loss medications is also on the rise, with GLP-1 drugs recently gaining significant attention and widespread popularity in the news. Dr. Dwarakanathan has observed some of the positive impacts of these medications, like taking the guilt and the failure aspect out of weight loss, but she also emphasizes the importances of pairing medication with sustainable lifestyle changes for long-term success.
“For those people that don’t understand that you need to couple habit formation with the medication, they’re in for a bumpy ride,” Dr. Dwarakanathan said. “Most likely those patients will have weight regain, which is mentally devastating.”
Individuals should only use medication when prescribed by their physician, however. On a smaller scale, people can work towards setting their own individual fitness goals to achieve personal success.
Throughout his journey to become a successful baseball player, Brayden faced the challenge of meeting expectations to continually gain weight and build muscle to excel in his sport. Teenagers, in particular, can feel intense societal pressure about their bodies, something Brayden has also learned to navigate.
“Focusing on having a better body image no matter what I look like or how I feel is important,” he said. “Like, learning to love myself at that stage, but making sure that my goals are healthy and that they’re not driven by other people’s opinions of me or other things I’ve seen online.”
Brayden encourages those starting a fitness journey to begin with simple, sustainable activities and gradually build up. Between this individual motivation and larger societal improvement, Dr. Dwarakanathan wishes for a decrease in the alarming obesity rates.
“I think between the focus on weight loss medication as well as more recently the focus on ultra-processed foods in the United States, my hope is that we will see obesity level off,” she said. “I’m cautiously optimistic that we will see a slight decline maybe in the next 10 years or so.”
