Obesity drugs are reshaping American bodies. The U.S. obesity rate, which had climbed for decades, has reversed course over the past three years, and the fallout is rippling through the food, apparel and alcohol markets.
The U.S. adult obesity rate stood at 37.0% in 2025, down 2.9 percentage points from the record high of 39.9% in 2022, according to Gallup's National Health and Well-Being Index report released on the 20th. That translates into about 7.6 million fewer obese adults in the United States over the three years.
Over the same period, the share of adults who said they had used GLP-1 injections to lose weight more than doubled, rising to 12.4% in 2025 from 5.8% in 2024. The findings add weight to the view that GLP-1 obesity drugs such as Wegovy and Mounjaro are actually pulling down the U.S. obesity rate.
The changes extend beyond the body. Grocery spending fell an average of 5.3% within six months of starting obesity drugs, according to research by Cornell University published in the Journal of Marketing Research. Sales of potato chips, packaged cookies and baked bread dropped by as much as 10%, while consumption of yogurt, fresh fruit and protein bars rose. A NielsenIQ survey found alcohol spending down 14.5%, with purchases of non-alcoholic wine and beer surging.
The apparel industry is also on alert. Between 2023 and 2025, the share of women's clothing sold in XS and S sizes rose 2 percentage points while L and XL sizes fell by the same margin, according to Impact Analytics. Apparel companies that misjudge size demand could face losses in the trillions of won, by one estimate.
Korea Is No Exception: Mounjaro Prescriptions Top 1.5 Million
Korea is seeing the same trend. Mounjaro has been prescribed more than 1.5 million times less than a year after its domestic launch, and total distribution of obesity drugs is estimated to have grown roughly 20-fold over the past two years.
GLP-1 drugs mimic the GLP-1 hormone secreted in the small intestine after meals, regulating blood sugar and increasing feelings of fullness. In principle, they are approved only for adults with a body mass index of 30 or higher, or overweight adults with high blood pressure or dyslipidemia. In practice, however, prescriptions are being issued indiscriminately to people of normal weight, and cases of administration to pregnant women and children have been uncovered. Concerns about side effects have also been raised. At a parliamentary audit of government agencies in October, suspected cases of NAION-related vision damage following Wegovy use were confirmed.
The European Medicines Agency has recognized the condition as a side effect of Wegovy and ordered that the warning label specify a frequency of up to one in 10,000 patients. The American Academy of Ophthalmology and the North American Neuro-Ophthalmology Society issued a joint recommendation that doctors and patients decide together whether to use the drug. Medical professionals say that for patients who are not severely obese, prescriptions should be issued cautiously after a thorough assessment of the risk of complications.