Time to Throw Your Weight Behind the Scale

Dear Policy Maker,

On the occasion of World Obesity Day, we would like to make an urgent appeal: use your political weight to make the prevention and treatment of overweight and obesity a priority within your policy domain.

Did you know that in 2019, the impact of obesity cost our country as much as €4.5 billion? And that by 2030, more than one in four men and nearly one in five women will be living with obesity?

Only by investing at an early stage of the disease can these costs be reduced.

You may not immediately consider “obesity” to fall directly under your policy responsibility. However, a well-considered obesity strategy requires a “Health in All Policies (HiAP)” approach — ranging from affordable school meals to access to adequate care when people develop this chronic condition. Obesity is, and remains, the largest silent health crisis facing our country today.

The new insights gathered by scientists in recent years about overweight and obesity have definitively consigned the old adage “move more and eat less” to the waste bin. The reasons why someone loses control over their weight are highly diverse. It is becoming increasingly clear that a person’s weight is the result of complex hormonal and neurological balances in the body, which are disrupted in people living with overweight or obesity. This has led to the development of highly effective therapies, ranging from behavioral therapy to medication and metabolic bariatric surgery. Yet these therapies remain underused, and people living with overweight and obesity often struggle to find appropriate support.

For children, progress has already been made through structured care pathways. However, we must not overlook the fact that many people develop overweight and obesity in adulthood, and that the prevalence of this condition increases with age. For adults, a structural and layered approach is lacking. Therapy should be tailored and intensified according to the individual impact and characteristics of each person. Moreover, adults still too often face weight stigma, which exacerbates the problem and discourages people from seeking appropriate help.

The health crisis posed by obesity is a national emergency. Its social and economic consequences are substantial. In addition to high healthcare costs, obesity also leads to significant productivity losses. Without a targeted, society-wide strategy, future projections are deeply concerning.

However, with the right policy choices, we can indeed turn the tide. This is not only about reimbursed medical treatments, but also about policies concerning spatial planning, mobility, work organization, regulation of commercial determinants, and the creation of a healthy living environment for everyone. The knowledge and solutions are available — what is needed now is to embed them firmly in policy.

Nearly 200 years after Quetelet, in the then newly established Belgium, described the still widely used Body Mass Index (BMI) as a way to adjust weight for height, it is time for Belgium once again to take a leading role in ensuring that people can live at a healthy weight.

We count on your commitment.

Yours sincerely,
The Belgian Association for the Study of Obesity

Prof. Dr. Bart Van der Schueren