Obesity now impacts countries at all economic levels, bringing with it a wave of ill health and lost productivity. Of all high-income countries, the United States has the highest rates of overweight and obesity, with fully a third of the population obese. This rate is projected to rise to around 50 percent by 2030. As with most health issues, the burden of obesity isn’t felt equally across all parts of society. The poor have higher rates than those with higher income. Those with less education have higher rates than those with more education. And certain minority groups-especially African American and Hispanic women-have much higher rates than other groups. Beyond North America, the regions of Europe, South and Central America, Western Pacific, and parts of Africa and Asia also have elevated obesity rates, with only a handful of areas with low and consistent levels of obesity. The worldwide spread of obesity and resulting increase in rates of chronic disease and other serious conditions threatens health systems, economies, and individual lives. Bringing the problem back under control will take multifaceted country-level as well as global-level efforts, and they cannot begin in earnest soon enough. The STAR Bariatrics program is designed to begin addressing the trends highlighted above. It’s design outlines a number of important topic areas that give both basic obesity education on pathophysiology and treatment, but also specific training on the use of bariatric endoscopic therapies for obesity treatment. This online only program of Fundamentals of Obesity is an ASGE requirement if one desires to progress toward the higher-level parts of the ASGE STAR courses in Bariatrics for specific devices or procedural hands-on training.