Obesity the Condition

Obesity is a condition that no one in particular wishes to have but sadly the US statistics show that 58 Million Americans are overweight with 40 million of those being obese and 3 million being morbidly obese. The reasons may be in the figures below:

· 78% of Americans do not meet basic activity level recommendations for good health

· 25% of Americans lead a sedentary lifestyle

· It is said that presently, the USA obesity rates have reached epidemic proportions.

Obesity is defined as the condition in which a person has an excessive amount of body fat. The excessive amount of body fat can have a negative impact on the health of the individual. Excess body weight contributes to illnesses such as cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes mellitus, obstructive sleep apnea, certain cancers, and osteoarthritis. Obesity can shorten your lifespan and have a negative impact on self-image.

Obesity is the leading PREVENTABLE cause of death worldwide. Rates for both adult and childhood obesity are increasing so much so that authorities view obesity as the most serious public health problem of the 21st century.

Body mass index (BMI) is used to assess a person’s status regarding if they are obese or not. BMI is used to estimate body fat mass. BMI is not accurate when used to measure body builders and women who are pregnant. To arrive at BMI you divide the person’s mass by the square of his or her height, which is expressed in metric:

Metric: BMI = kilograms / meters2 (meters squared).

A BMI of 30.0 to 34.9 is considered to be class I obesity. A BMI of 35.0 to 39.9 is considered to be class II obesity and a BMI of 40.0 and over is considered to be class III obesity.

Childhood obesity is defined as a BMI greater than 95th percentile. The two factors affecting childhood obesity appear to be a change in diet and a decrease in physical activity. When a child is considered to be obese the health treatments usually include lifestyle interventions and behavior modifications. Medications have not been approved for use in children for obesity.

Did you know that obesity is one of the leading PREVENTABLE causes of death worldwide? People die because they are obese and they death is totally preventable. If you could prevent your death wouldn’t you?

Obesity is directly or indirectly the cause of many medical conditions including those in the categories of cardiology, endocrinology and reproductive medicine, neurology, psychiatry, rheumatology and orthopedics. Obesity has been connected to low back pain, osteoarthritis, depression in women, carpal tunnel syndrome, migraines, stroke, infertility, polycystic ovarian syndrome, diabetes mellitus, high blood pressure, abnormal cholesterol levels, deep vein thrombosis, congestive heart failure and heart attack.