With 61% of the American population overweight or obese, the need for treatment far exceeds the capacity of the health care system to provide care on an individual basis. Moreover, the most effective method for the delivery of treatment, and the best ways to induce and sustain client adherence to such a program, remain elusive. Obesity stands in the ignominious position of being the only epidemic in the latter decades of the twentieth century and into the new millennium that nurses--clinicians, academicians, and investigators alike seem to have virtually ignored. There are few past or present clinical descriptions, curriculum examples, or research results that have been presented or published by nurses that demonstrate the discipline's recognition of and commitment to this pervasive health problem. With the ever-increasing prevalence of obesity and obesity-related diseases, the burgeoning expansion of health care delivery in outpatient care, and the growing emphasis on health promotion, it is imperative that nurses in all roles give their long overdue and concerted attention to grappling with this unrelenting epidemic.