World Obesity Federation

Home
United Kingdom
London
World Obesity Federation

The World Obesity Federation is dedicated to addressing the international burden of obesity by uniting scientific, medical and research communities.
(1)

27/09/2026

📬 Sunday Sign Up!

Want to keep up with everything we're working on? Our newsletter is where we share everything we've been getting up to: research, policy updates, events and campaigns, straight to your inbox.
Just the updates that matter, sent when there's genuinely something to share.

🔗 Sign up now: https://ow.ly/8RGe50ZPbHO

26/09/2026

🎓 SCOPE Saturday

Why SCOPE? Here are four reasons obesity care professionals around the world choose it as their certification of choice. Swipe through 👉

1️⃣ 60+ CME-accredited modules: CME-accredited e-learning in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese, study whenever suits you.
2️⃣ SCOPE Schools worldwide: one-day intensive courses held multiple times a year, in locations across the globe.
3️⃣ Endorsed where it counts: backed by NHS England and more than 50 national associations worldwide.
4️⃣ The international gold standard: the only internationally-recognised certification in obesity management.

Whether you're just starting out or working towards full certification, SCOPE meets you where you are. 🌍

🔗 To start your SCOPE journey, head straight to https://ow.ly/KNem50ZPEjv

25/09/2026

🔎 Friday Findings: How active we can be is shaped by our environment, not just our motivation.

🚶 Towns and cities with limited green space and unsafe walking and cycling routes make it harder to stay active, whatever someone's intentions. When walking, cycling and public transport aren't prioritised, communities become more car dependent and less active by default.

🌳 That's why we're calling for safer active travel routes, more accessible green spaces and fiscal measures that make physical activity easier to choose, not harder.

Our environments play a crucial role in shaping health. 💪

Follow along for more Friday Findings - new evidence, every week.

🔗 Explore more on the systems shaping obesity: https://ow.ly/feBp50ZPbwy

24/09/2026

Revisiting our Joint Position Statement on Steatotic Liver Disease. 🩺

Earlier this year, we joined more than 50 global partners in a joint position statement calling for steatotic liver disease (SLD) to be recognised and addressed within noncommunicable disease strategies. With so much else in global health moving fast, it's a call to action worth bringing back into view. 📋

📊 SLD affects an estimated 1.7 billion people worldwide and is now the fastest-growing cause of chronic liver disease globally.

SLD sits within a broader continuum of metabolic dysfunction, closely linked to obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and other NCDs. Despite this, it remains largely absent from global NCD strategies, monitoring frameworks and policy responses. 🌍

Our call still stands: embed liver health within global NCD and universal health coverage (UHC) strategies, so it's treated as part of the wider noncommunicable disease agenda. 🤝

📖 Read the full joint position statement: https://ow.ly/EoPm50ZPbnx

22/09/2026

🧬 Roots of Obesity: Genetics

Obesity isn't caused by one thing - it's shaped by many interacting factors. Today we're looking at genetics. 👇

🔬 Our genes account for somewhere between 40–70% of a person's likelihood of developing obesity. Hundreds of genes play a role, and while no single one determines the outcome, their combined effect can significantly increase someone's biological susceptibility.

But genes alone don't determine the outcome. How they're expressed can be shaped by environment - from food systems to daily habits - which is exactly why we look at obesity as a product of biology and environment together.

🎓 Want to learn more? Our SCOPE certification includes a module on the genetics of obesity: https://ow.ly/zSzR50ZPb69
🔗 Or, on our website you can read more about the root causes of obesity: https://ow.ly/THYH50ZPb68

21/09/2026

Member Monday 🌍

This week, two of our national members take centre stage in Central Europe.

🇩🇪 The Deutsche Adipositas Gesellschaft hosts the Adipositas-Kongress 2026 in Potsdam (23–25 September), held together with EASO under the theme "Prevention and Therapy Hand in Hand." Find out more: https://ow.ly/63eM50ZPeHC

🇦🇹 The Austrian Obesity Association holds its Joint Annual Conference in Vienna (24–25 September), alongside the Austrian Society for Obesity and Metabolic Surgery, focused on interdisciplinary obesity treatment. Find out more: https://ow.ly/Gr9q50ZPeHB

We're proud to be part of a network of national members working towards a healthier future across more than 100 countries. Wishing both congresses a successful few days!

👉 Explore our full network of members: https://www.worldobesity.org/our-network/our-members

20/09/2026

📊 Right now, more than 1 billion people (adults and children over 5) are living with obesity. By 2035, that figure could reach 1.5 billion - and almost 4 billion people could be living with overweight or obesity. 🌍

We've shared numbers like this before. We'll likely share them again. Not because the story is changing - but because it isn't. Not yet.

Obesity isn't a failure of willpower. It's shaped by the food we can access, the health systems we can rely on, and the policies that surround us. Until those systems change, the trajectory won't either. 📈

That's the story these figures are telling. The question is whether we act on it before the next set of numbers comes in.

These figures are World Obesity projections, drawn from NCD-RisC (2024) and UN Population Division (2024) data. For more on the global picture, explore the World Obesity Atlas at https://ow.ly/bMqT50ZMCeG ➡️

19/09/2026

Wondering what it actually takes to get SCOPE certified?

12 points. More than one way to get there.

✅ 4 points from the Core Learning Path
✅ 0.5 points per supplementary module, choose from topics including Facilitating Behaviour Change, Overcoming Perceived Barriers in Primary Care and Obesity and Mental Health
✅ Plus exam, experience and referees

However you combine them, it adds up to the same certification. Learn at your own pace and build your path your way. 🎓

See exactly how the points stack up and start earning yours today. Find out more at: https://ow.ly/3Ivm50ZMC4z ➡️

18/09/2026

🛒 : Food environments shape choice, through price, placement and marketing.

Processed food is now widely available, affordable and heavily promoted - the food environment has shifted dramatically towards it over the past few decades.

📢 Marketing plays a powerful role. In Latin America, tactics such as cartoon characters, promotions and product placement have been shown to appeal directly to children and are linked to poorer-quality diets and higher consumption of ultra-processed foods.

💡 The evidence also shows what works: restricting the reach of marketing has been shown to reduce children's exposure to it, even against continued industry interference.

🔸It's not just about what's on the shelf.
🔸It's about what's affordable.
🔸It's about what's placed in front of you, and who it's aimed at.

Processed food is often cheaper than nutritious, unprocessed alternatives - displacing healthier options, especially among more disadvantaged populations. And this isn't confined to one part of the world: ultra-processed food is now a significant part of everyday diets across high-, middle- and low-income countries alike, contributing to rising obesity globally.

Food choices aren't made in isolation. They're shaped by the environment around them.

Learn more about the evidence behind this: https://ow.ly/ymhQ50ZMBZH ➡️

17/09/2026

💙 You can look healthy and still be at risk. New research shows obesity can raise heart disease risk long before any other symptoms appear.

New findings presented at followed 382,769 adults through UK Biobank data over 12 years, and challenge a common assumption: that obesity without other health complications, sometimes called "healthy obesity", is essentially risk-free.

Women with preclinical obesity (excess fat, but no other complications) had a 38% higher risk of cardiovascular disease and a 46% higher risk of death.

Men with preclinical obesity had an 18% higher cardiovascular disease risk and a 52% higher mortality risk.

Women with clinical obesity had 2.5 times the cardiovascular disease risk and 2.8 times the mortality risk.

📏 The findings suggest waist size should be considered alongside BMI, not instead of it, in clinical assessments. Carrying excess fat around the abdomen appears to raise risk significantly, even when no other obesity-related conditions are present.

Researchers are calling for routine waist circumference measurement to become a standard part of clinical care alongside BMI, helping healthcare providers identify people at higher risk earlier and act sooner. This could help prevent hundreds of thousands of deaths over a decade.

➡️ Read the full findings, and see why waist measurements, not just BMI, could help doctors catch risk earlier: https://ow.ly/Qpqz50ZMBRA

Address

The Cursitor, 5th Floor, Chancery Lane
London
WC1X8TZ

Website

https://www.worldobesity.org/, https://linktr.ee/worldobesityfederation

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when World Obesity Federation posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Organisation

Send a message to World Obesity Federation:

Featured

British DJ & MC Academy
The grangeway
Hephzibar Foundation