One in five normal-weight women consider themselves obese, survey says
As a gap emerges between people's actual weight and how they perceive their body shape, the use of obesity drugs has also risen rapidly.
A person posts a notice announcing the availability of Wegovy at a pharmacy in central Seoul on Dec. 2, 2024.
YONHAP
Nearly one in five women of normal weight were found to consider themselves obese, according to a new survey.
A total of 18.9 percent of women of normal weight perceived themselves as obese, more than four times the 4.1 percent of men of normal weight who saw themselves that way, the Korean Society for the Study of Obesity said on Monday. The survey was conducted on adults aged 20 and older who participated in the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency’s Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2022 to 2024.
The society used a person’s body mass index (BMI) to classify their weight status. A BMI lower than 18.5 is considered underweight; 18.5 to 22.9 is considered normal weight; 23 to 24.9 considered preobesity; 25 to 29.9 is considered Class 1 obesity; 30 to 34.9 is considered Class 2 obesity; and 35 or higher is considered Class 3 obesity.
Among women in the preobesity category, 66.9 percent perceived themselves as obese, more than twice the 31.8 percent of men in the category who answered the same.
By age group, people aged 20 to 39 were the most likely to perceive themselves as obese. Among those in the age group, 15.7 percent of people of normal weight and 54.8 percent of those in the preobesity category perceived themselves as obese.
As a gap emerges between people’s actual weight and how they perceive their body shape, the use of obesity drugs has also risen rapidly.
Mounjaro, an injectable obesity treatment, was prescribed 1.5 million times from its launch in Korea in August 2025 through May, data from the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service’s Drug Utilization Review (DUR) system obtained by People Power Party Rep. Han Zee-a showed.
People in their 20s and 30s accounted for 52.9 percent of the prescriptions, or 794,781 cases.
Concerns have been raised that while obesity drugs can be an effective treatment for patients with obesity, people of normal weight who use them for weight loss may face a higher risk of experiencing side effects.
Additionally, safeguards against misuse and overuse, including duplicate prescriptions and dosage warnings, remain insufficient during the prescribing process. The DUR system issued 126,538 alerts involving duplicate Mounjaro prescriptions, but prescriptions were changed in only 7,331 cases, or 5.8 percent.
BY KIM EUN-BIN [lee.taehee2@joongang.co.kr]
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
