A boy exercises during a weight loss camp held by DFFIT. Photo: Courtesy of DFFIT

If we need to select a key phrase for 2025, "weight management" could be one of the most red-hot candidates. 

Since March when Lei Haichao, head of the National Health Commission (NHC), announced plans to establish more weight management clinics at medical and health facilities, a measure to deepen the country's three-year weight management action launched in June 2024, there has been a fervor over weight management among the Chinese people. 

Related topics like "weight management" and "weight loss" have been frequently discussed on Chinese social media platforms. Weight management clinics located in national hospitals have also surged in popularity, while weight management courses are increasingly being offered in colleges. AI systems designated for weight management are also entering the market.  

On April 14, the NHC made further move by announcing to add the nationwide weight management campaign to its Healthy China Initiative, a comprehensive public health strategy launched in 2019 to improve national health outcomes. The move targets overweight and obesity that is now considered "a major public health threat" to Chinese people.

National-level policy promotion has enhanced public awareness of obesity, leading to a greater consciousness about weight loss, Xu Lanman, director of the People's Hospital affiliated with the Ningbo University (Yinzhou People's Hospital), told the Global Times. 

According to Xu, since March, the daily number of outpatient consultations at the weight management clinic in the hospital he works has increased by approximately 40 percent to about 40 people per day, with more middle-aged people and patients with obesity-related complications pouring to see doctors.  

Chinese netizens have also made fun of the national-level attention to weight management by popularizing the cheeky hashtag "the country's calling you to drop those pounds" on Chinese social media platforms. 

Experts and doctors reached by the Global Times noted that the phenomenon mirrors an alignment of scientific research, government action, and public engagement in terms of weight management. This synergy indicates a vibrant wellness boom unfolding across the country.

A doctor at the weight management clinic of the People's Hospital affiliated with the Ningbo University (Yinzhou People's Hospital) receives a patient. Photo: Courtesy of the Yinzhou People's Hospital

A modern issue

Overweight and obesity are defined as abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that presents a risk to health. A body mass index (BMI) over 25 is considered overweight, and over 30 is obese. 

For China, a nation that had long struggled to feed its vast population, obesity was barely a concern until the late 1970s, when reform and opening-up ignited an economic boom, as well as a swelling of the national appetite, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

Today, with more than 1.4 billion people, China faces a growing obesity challenge. A report by the NHC in December 2020 shows that 34.3 percent of adult Chinese are overweight and 16.4 percent was obese. The proportion of the younger population facing weight issues is also alarming. The report shows that nearly 20 percent of youngsters aged 6 to 17 and more than 10 percent of children younger than six are either obese or overweight.

In stark contrast, back in 1982, the obesity rate among Chinese children and teenagers aged 7 to 17 was just 0.2 percent, according to the NHC. 

If the issue is not effectively solved, by 2030, the rates of obesity among adults and children in China will reach 70.5 percent and 31.8 percent, respectively, the NHC warned in the guidelines for weight management issued in 2024.

Based on the observation of Feng Lei, co-founder of DFFIT, a 20-year domestic weight loss service enterprise based in Shanghai that has served nearly 150,000 individuals across China, weight issues are closely related to an unhealthy lifestyle in conjunction with improving economic conditions.

Taking the adolescents attending DFFIT's losing weight camps as an example, Feng noted that, whether intentionally or unintentionally, these adolescents' parents are feeding their children a diet rich in high-energy but low-nutrition foods like soda, hamburgers, pizza, and overly processed snacks, which has become a major culprit behind their weight issues. 

Academic pressures and a lack of emphasis on physical activity by some parents and schools, have also left many teenagers without sufficient exercise during their formative years, he added.

Adolescents are also major visitors to the Yinzhou People's Hospital's weight management clinic aside from senior citizens, postpartum women, and middle-aged male professionals.

These groups generally lead sedentary lifestyles, lack exercise, have irregular eating and sleeping patterns, and maintain unhealthy habits; or often experience significant academic or work-related stress. A small number of them are overweight due to secondary obesity caused by medications (such as Polycystic ovary syndrome, hypothyroidism, or long-term hormone use), and congenital obesity resulting from genetic factors, Gong Weikun, a senior director at the Yinzhou People's Hospital and founder of the hospital's weight management clinic, told the Global Times.  

A study by a research team at the Institute of Child and Adolescent Health (ICAH), Peking University, published on The Lancet in October 2024 focused on the disparity of weight issues among adolescents in urban and rural regions. It predicts that the increasing prevalence of childhood obesity in rural and lower socioeconomic status areas will dominate a future obesity issue among Chinese children and adolescents. 

China will gradually exhibit similar patterns of nutritional inequality as seen in some industrialized high-income countries, Dong Yanhui, an ICAH researcher attending both studies, told the Global Times. He called for more comprehensive and extensive preventive health investments to eliminate the potential health inequalities related to obesity among current and future Chinese children and adolescents.

Children participate in a fitness camp in Hefei, East China's Anhui Province, on March 25, 2025. Photo: VCG

A tough mission

Xuan Xuan (alias) still remembers the mix of excitement and fear he felt when he got up the courage to step into DFFIT's weight-loss summer camp in the summer of 2024.

At the time, Xuan Xuan, 16, weighed 102 kilograms at a height of 161 centimeter, which means his BMI exceeded 39. 

"I have been overweight since childhood, and even walking was always a struggle for me," Xuan Xuan told the Global Times, frowning. "I really didn't want to be this heavy anymore."

During the four-week summer camp, Xuan Xuan gradually learned the correct way to exercise under the guidance of his coaches, and picked up basketball skills. His persistence paid off. He lost 23 kilograms after the camp.

To individuals like Xuan Xuan, weight management is a personal issue related to lifestyle. But in terms of public health, as the suffering caused by obesity-related diseases accumulates to a certain scale along with the development of the society − especially when considering the aging tendency around the world − weight undoubtedly becomes a public issue that policymakers must pay attention to.

The abovementioned ICAH study predicts that from 2025 to 2092, direct medical costs associated with obesity are expected to total 21 billion yuan, while indirect costs, including loss of quality of life and productivity, are projected to reach 218 trillion yuan during the same period.

In response, Chinese authorities launched a nationwide campaign in June 2024 to foster a supportive environment for weight control within three years. 

Many countries around the world have also made efforts to combat the stubborn issue of obesity. But the 2025 World Obesity Atlas, published on March 4 − the World Obesity Day, points out that two-thirds of countries worldwide have none or just one of five key policies in place to address obesity. 

The report projects that the total number of adults living with obesity will increase by more than 115 percent between 2010 and 2030, from 524 million to 1.13 billion.

In 2021, a study by researchers from the University of Cambridge found that, in England, the majority of adults, and more than a quarter of children aged 2 to 15 years,  live with obesity or excess weight. From 1992 to 2020, even though the government published 14 obesity strategies in England, the prevalence of obesity has not been reduced. The study noted some problems of the government's obesity policies in England, including the policies were proposed in a way that does not readily lead to implementation and the governments rarely commission evaluations of previous government strategies or learn from policy failures.

In the US, the first publication of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans was released in 1980, but they still failed to prevent a significant increase in the proportion of overweight and obese individuals over the proceeding 30 years. Nearly 3 in 4 adults in the US are now considered overweight or have obesity, according to a 2024 study published on The Lancet. 

Experts from the Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Prevention and Control promote balanced diets during a weight management-themed event held in Guangzhou on March 23, 2025. Photo: VCG

A systematic action

Previous experiences in both China and other countries highlight the importance of a more systematic and comprehensive plan to address weight issues.

Lai Jianqiang, director of the Chronic Disease and Aging Health Management Department at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told China Central Television that China's nationwide weight management campaign is a breakthrough point for addressing the major issues of chronic disease prevention and control, starting from the small angle of weight. 

If implemented effectively, it will be very beneficial for preventing chronic diseases and reducing the current high prevalence of these conditions. It may even provide a Chinese solution to global chronic disease prevention and control, Lai said. 

The Chinese health system has already begun to take action. 

The NHC issued an announcement on April 10 to encourage conditional tertiary general hospitals, children's hospitals, and traditional Chinese medicine hospitals across the country to establish weight management outpatient clinics. 

In the next step, the Yinzhou People's Hospital, taking advantage of its digital medical system, will collaborate with local community health centers to screen high-risk populations, according to Xu Lanman. 

"We will implement graded and stratified management for obese individuals, providing smart dietary guidance through an app, online access to diet and exercise resources, and online follow-up support. By facilitating collaboration between healthcare providers and patients, we aim to effectively promote weight loss efforts," Xu said. 

Chinese colleges are also sparing no effort in encouraging students to pay attention to their weight. In Shenyang, Northeast China's Liaoning Province, 766 health-supportive environments have been established, including 73 health schools. 

At these schools, students can take advantage of their break time to freely conduct health checks in the newly added health examination hall, which is equipped with devices such as height and weight testers, waist measurement tools, blood pressure and oxygen monitors, and psychological sand trays.

In a community in Qingdao, East China's Shandong Province, special classes on weight management are now available for senior citizens to provide the group with practical health knowledge, guidance, and personalized consultations.

Chinese people are also spending more time on sports, embracing in China's increasingly wellness-savvy society. 

According to Xinhua, by the end of 2023, China had constructed 4.59 million sports venues and 370,000 kilometers of fitness trails. Physical education testing has been incorporated into high school entrance exams. 

A survey conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics shows that 49.6 percent of residents engaged in sports and fitness activities in 2024, up 18.7 percentage points from 2018.

The improvement of residents' lives is not only the responsibility and challenge of the healthcare system. China's development has reached a stage where the government should not only compare local economic development situations, but also assess which areas have healthier residents, which areas have longer life expectancy, and which areas have better living conditions, experts noted.