Should veterinarians apply a 2-step framework to classify adiposity and diagnose clinical obesity in dogs and cats?

Obesity drugs are entering veterinary trials, and prescribing them should follow a diagnosis. Body condition score is not a diagnosis; it describes a patient's adiposity, not whether it is causing illness. This Viewpoint proposes 2 steps for diagnosing clinical obesity in dogs and cats: describe, then diagnose. Step 1 describes adiposity as overweight or obesity. Step 2, applied only when obesity is documented, assigns a disease stage; clinical obesity requires a documented, clinically meaningful abnormality attributed to adiposity. The framework is proposed for consensus and validation. Structured weight loss begins at overweight; nutritional assessment applies to every patient.