The authors thank Laurent Fauchier and colleagues for their comments and agree that metabolic heterogeneity within obesity is important for cardiometabolic risk assessment[1]. The authors report that distinguishing between metabolically healthy and unhealthy obesity phenotypes can refine estimates of health burden at both the individual and population levels[1]. They argue that the inclusion of metabolic status in obesity prognoses is necessary to more accurately predict subsequent health consequences[1]. In correspondence, the authors confirm that such stratification may affect estimated risks for cardiovascular and metabolic diseases in models used in global obesity projections[1]. The authors further agree with the idea that without distinguishing metabolic health, estimates of health burden may be overestimated or underestimated at different population levels[1].