4/4/2026
Concerning Rise in U.S. Teen Obesity
1 in 5 U.S. adolescents is now classified as obese, a trend that carries serious risks.
1 in 5 U.S. adolescents – 22.2% of high school students – is now classified as obese, a trend that carries serious physical and mental health risks extending into adulthood. To better understand these patterns, researchers from FAU’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine analyzed data from 2013 to 2023 in more than 85,000 U.S. students in grades nine to 12. Using the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, the most recent data available from the CDC, the team examined trends in overweight and obesity, as well as weight-loss efforts, across race, ethnicity, gender and grade level.
Results of the study show that overall obesity rose from 13.7% to 15.9%, peaking at 16.3% in 2021. Black and Hispanic adolescents consistently had the highest rates, with peaks of 21.2% and 20.2%, while Asian teens had the lowest rates, though their prevalence nearly doubled from 5.6% to 11%. At the same time, the proportion of students classified as overweight declined from 16.6% to 14.7%, mainly driven by decreases among males. Fewer adolescents reported trying to lose weight in 2023 (44.5%) compared with 2013 (47.7%), with declines most notable among 10th and 12th graders. Female adolescents, while more likely than their male counterparts to attempt weight loss, also showed a drop in engagement, highlighting a troubling gap between rising obesity rates and declining weight-management efforts. These patterns varied among subgroups of race, gender and grade, and emphasize the urgent need for targeted clinical and public health interventions to help teens adopt healthier behaviors and maintain realistic body expectations.
“In the U.S. today, adolescent obesity rates continue to rise while weight-loss attempts have steadily declined,” said Charles H. Hennekens, M.D., Dr.PH, FACPM, co-author and the First Sir Richard Doll Professor of Medicine and Preventive Medicine and senior academic advisor in FAU’s College of Medicine. “These findings highlight increasing clinical and public health challenges and illustrate the urgent need for targeted interventions.”