Research
Hormonal
Obesity is a chronic, progressive, relapsing, and treatable multi-factorial neurobehavioral disease, not just a lifestyle choice.
Understand that obesity is a disease with biological drivers, not just a failure of will. This reduces self-blame and opens the door to effective medical and lifestyle interventions.
StrongSupportsVERY_HIGH confidence
According to the OMA, obesity is defined as a: 'Serious, chronic, progressive, relapsing, and treatable multi-factorial, neurobehavioral disease, wherein an increase in adiposity promotes adipose tissue dysfunction and abnormal fat mass physical forces, resulting in adverse metabolic, biomechanical, and psychosocial health consequences' [2]
Why this rating
This is a definitional statement from a major medical association, supported by extensive literature cited.
Source
Obesity management in primary care: A joint clinical perspective and expert review from the Obesity Medicine Association (OMA) and the American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians (ACOFP) - 2025
N. J. Pennings et al. · Obesity Pillars · 2025
DOI 10.1016/j.obpill.2025.100172
narrative_reviewCited 10×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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