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Obesity Guide
The Facts About Obesity
According to the World Health Organization obesity has now reached epidemic proportions in many Western countries and when see the facts about obesity it is easy to see why.
In the United States, which has one of the highest rates of obesity of any country in the world, a staggering 127 million adults are now overweight and no fewer than 60 million adults are classed as being obese. As if this were not bad enough, 9 million American adults are classified as being severely, or morbidly, obese.
To put these figures into perspective 66 percent of the population are overweight, 32 percent are obese and 5% are severely obese.
If the human body receives more calories than it needs then it simply converts the excess calories into fat and stores that fat for use at a later date if needed. However, if this stored energy reserve is not needed and the body continues to receive more calories than it needs, then it simply goes on building up its fat reserve and weight continues to increase.
At first this excess weight has little effect of the body and being slightly overweight will do you little if any harm. Indeed there is an argument that being slightly overweight may actually be helpful in the elderly. However, once your weight rises above a certain level, the excess fat in the body begins to put the body under strain and health problems begin to develop.
The problems created by excessive weight once you reach the point at which you are considered to obese, rather than simply overweight, are many and varied but commonly include cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, sleep apnea and osteoarthritis.
But at what point does being overweight being a case of being obese?
The point at which you are classed as being obese needs to be assessed by your doctor in a clinical setting however, as a general guide, a measure known as Body Mass Index, or BMI, is commonly used.
How to calculate BMI
BMI is calculated as a ratio between your weight and height and a ratio of between 18.5 and 24.9 is considered to be the normal weight range. A reading of 25.0 to 29.9 indicates that you are overweight and, once your reading reaches 30.0 you are classed as being obese. Severe, or morbid, obesity is indicated by a BMI of 40.0 or higher.
Use the simple BMI calculator below to answer the question "What is my BMI?"
In this section of the website we examine the facts about obesity through a collection of articles which are constantly updated as new information is received.
Please take a moment to view the index of currently available obesity articles.
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