Yep, "42.4% of US Adults are obese" would have been a better title.

I'm medically "obese", but nobody looking at me would say that. Whenever I tell people that I'm dieting, they're surprised and often tell me that I look good.

So with the medical definition of obese not matching what peoples' eyes tell them, I'm not surprised that 42% are "obese".

Do you really think anyone reading this is going to think you're anything other than an obese person with polite friends and a mild case of self-delusion?

Of course, there are many nuances. Your musculature (though surely if you were a bodybuilder you'd have said so). Your sex, both for where fat sits on your body and for social expectations. The clothes you wear. Normal human variation - if your femurs just happen to be -2 standard deviations in length, your BMI will always be higher than it would be otherwise.

Someone with a BMI just into the thirties can still have a good level of walking-around fitness, look good in a shirt, etc. They wouldn't stand out in today's society. But the medical risks are still increased in a statistical sense. It being normalised may make people feel better but doesn't solve the medical issue.

I'm sure some people will just say "Yeah, he's a fatty that's lying to himself." Others will believe me, possibly because I can't think of any reason to lie about it.

And I happen to think my legs are short for my height, and my arms are a bit long. It's worked out quite well for me.

But my point was simply that the number will seem hard to believe for many people if they don't realize that the layman word "obese" means something slightly different than the medical term.

In this age of normalised obesity, the idea of what an obese person looks like has also shifted. Plenty of overweight and slightly obese people would consider themselves as normal weight in countries where obesity is prevalent.

And normal they are, but it's just a bad reference point.

My point was more about what other people perceive than what a person perceives about themselves.

I agree that the perception of "normal weight" has probably changed over the years, but I think "obese" has always meant something more extreme to the layman than it has to a medical professional.

the first line on the link is a little more clear

> The US obesity prevalence was 42.4% in 2017 – 2018.