The public health response to excess prevalence rates of obesity encompasses both primary, secondary and tertiary prevention. This can be positioned as a need for universal, but not uniform, policy and program or service response to both promote diet quality and movement behaviours in line with population guidelines through to addressing the consequences of obesity. Public health responses to the global obesity epidemic are relatively new. The first WHO report on preventing and managing obesity was published in 1998. In the 25 years since, both the science and art of public health have used a range of data sources to understand the complexity of obesity, built the evidence base of effective prevention approaches and developed effective approaches for delivery at scale. In this presentation, the role of a wide range of information sources, including basic science, trials and systems thinking to shaping the public health policy and program landscape.