"US Adults are 42.4% obese" leads me to believe that all US adults are 42.4% of the way to becoming obese, where as in actuality it appears that 42.4% of US adults are obese.
So with the medical definition of obese not matching what peoples' eyes tell them, I'm not surprised that 42% are "obese".
And normal they are, but it's just a bad reference point.
I agree that the perception of "normal weight" has probably changed over the years, but I think "obese" has always meant something more extreme to the layman than it has to a medical professional.
Of course, there are many nuances. Your musculature (though surely if you were a bodybuilder you'd have said so). Your sex, both for where fat sits on your body and for social expectations. The clothes you wear. Normal human variation - if your femurs just happen to be -2 standard deviations in length, your BMI will always be higher than it would be otherwise.
Someone with a BMI just into the thirties can still have a good level of walking-around fitness, look good in a shirt, etc. They wouldn't stand out in today's society. But the medical risks are still increased in a statistical sense. It being normalised may make people feel better but doesn't solve the medical issue.
And I happen to think my legs are short for my height, and my arms are a bit long. It's worked out quite well for me.
But my point was simply that the number will seem hard to believe for many people if they don't realize that the layman word "obese" means something slightly different than the medical term.
> The US obesity prevalence was 42.4% in 2017 – 2018.