Guidance

This guideline covers the prevention and management of overweight, obesity and central adiposity in children, young people and adults. It brings together and updates all NICE's previous guidelines on overweight and obesity. It does not cover pregnancy.

See also, the section on healthy eating, physical activity and weight management during pregnancy in the NICE guideline on maternal and child nutrition.

Last reviewed: 14 January 2025

This guideline updates and replaces the following NICE guidelines:

  • Preventing excess weight gain (NG7, March 2015).
  • Obesity: identification, assessment and management (CG189, November 2014)
  • Weight management: lifestyle services for overweight or obese adults (PH53, May 2014)
  • Weight management: lifestyle services for overweight or obese children and young people (PH47, October 2013)
  • BMI: preventing ill health and premature death in Black, Asian and other minority ethnic groups (PH46, July 2013)
  • Obesity: working with local communities (PH42, November 2012)
  • Obesity prevention (CG43, December 2006)

For more details see the update information.

Next review: This guidance will be reviewed if there is new evidence that is likely to change the recommendations.

Recommendations

This guideline includes new and updated recommendations on:

These supplement the existing recommendations on:

  • general principles of care
  • information and support to help people maintain a healthier weight
  • local or regional strategic partnerships to prevent overweight and obesity
  • physical activity
  • medicines for overweight and obesity
  • surgical interventions
  • monitoring and evaluating services and interventions.

See the 1-page visual summaries on principles of care and the potential care journey.

View visual summary on principles of care View visual summary on the potential care journey

Who is it for?

  • Healthcare professionals
  • Commissioners and providers
  • People who work in, and are responsible for providing, services in the wider public, private, voluntary and community sectors
  • Childcare settings, nurseries and schools
  • Employers
  • People using services, their families and carers, and the public
  • Members of the public, particularly those living with overweight or obesity, their families and carers

Guideline development process

How we develop NICE guidelines

Your responsibility

The recommendations in this guideline represent the view of NICE, arrived at after careful consideration of the evidence available. When exercising their judgement, professionals and practitioners are expected to take this guideline fully into account, alongside the individual needs, preferences and values of their patients or the people using their service. It is not mandatory to apply the recommendations, and the guideline does not override the responsibility to make decisions appropriate to the circumstances of the individual, in consultation with them and their families and carers or guardian.

All problems (adverse events) related to a medicine or medical device used for treatment or in a procedure should be reported to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency using the Yellow Card Scheme.

Local commissioners and providers of healthcare have a responsibility to enable the guideline to be applied when individual professionals and people using services wish to use it. They should do so in the context of local and national priorities for funding and developing services, and in light of their duties to have due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, to advance equality of opportunity and to reduce health inequalities. Nothing in this guideline should be interpreted in a way that would be inconsistent with complying with those duties.

Commissioners and providers have a responsibility to promote an environmentally sustainable health and care system and should assess and reduce the environmental impact of implementing NICE recommendations wherever possible.