Nearly one-third of Canadians are now classified as obese, a condition that saw a sharp increase during the COVID-19 pandemic, a new study suggests.
The rate of obesity in Canada rose more rapidly in the four years following the onset of the pandemic than in the previous 11 years, particularly among younger adults, according to the findings of a new study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) this week.
Researchers classified 32.7 per cent of Canadians—or 10.6 million people—as obese in 2023 based on their body mass index (BMI). That is an increase of roughly eight percentage points since 2009, when 24.95 percent of Canadians were considered obese….