Overweight and obesity management

This quality standard covers prevention, behavioural management, assessment, and treatment of overweight, obesity and central adiposity in children and young people aged over 2 years, and adults. This includes those with established comorbidities, and those with risk factors for other medical conditions. It describes high-quality care in priority areas for improvement.

It does not cover care during pregnancy because this is covered by NICE’s quality standard on antenatal care.

Last reviewed: 5 August 2025

This quality standard updates and replaces the existing quality standards on obesity in children and young people: prevention and lifestyle weight management programmes (published July 2015), obesity in adults: prevention and lifestyle weight management programmes (published January 2016) and obesity: clinical assessment and management (published August 2016). The topic was identified for update following a review of quality standards. The review identified:

• changes in the priority areas for improvement
• updated guidance on overweight and obesity management
• that the quality standards on overweight and obesity management should be combined.

For more information, see update information.

Stigma from health and care professionals can act as a barrier to accessing care for people living with overweight, obesity or central adiposity and it can lead to worse mental and physical health outcomes during treatment.

People having discussions with health and care professionals about living with overweight, obesity or central adiposity should be communicated with in a person-centred manner using non-judgemental and non-stigmatising language.

For more information please refer to NICE’s guideline on overweight and obesity management, recommendations 1.1.1, 1.1.5, 1.1.6 and NICE’s quality standard on patient experience in the adult NHS services, statement 1 and statement 4.

How to use NICE quality standards and how we develop them

Quality standards help you improve the quality of care you provide or commission. They apply in England and Wales (see the UK government website and Welsh government website). Decisions on how they apply in Scotland and Northern Ireland are made by ministers in the Scottish government and Northern Ireland Executive.

Find out how to use quality standards and how we develop them.