UC Berkeley

The fraction of the obese population who appear to be free of the metabolic abnormalities that usually accompany excess adiposity has garnered a great deal of attention recently. The so-called "metabolically healthy obesity" concept is thought to offer a refinement of the traditional obesity definitions that are based solely on anthropometry. The commentary by Rey-López et al. (Am J Epidemiol. 2015;182(9):737-741) in this issue of the Journal highlights several limitations of the "metabolically healthy obesity" concept and calls into question its usefulness as a public health metric. We discuss several of the issues raised by these authors and offer some perspective on why the utility of this concept remains unresolved.