What is Obesity?

Obesity is defined as abnormal or excess fat accumulation in the body. Now a day’s obesity is a major risk factor for Type 2 diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular, sleep apnoea, arthritis, Gastroesophageal reflux, heartburn, depression, infertility, fatty liver, and so on, being overweight can hamper ability to control or manage chronic disorders.

It is now expending rapidly worldwide. There are many factors that contribute to the growing problems with obesity.

Sedentary life style, unhealthy foods are the main causes of obesity. Change in dietary and physical activity often result of urbanization, mode of travel, mode of work, social background, environment and education.

Body mass index (BMI) is a simple index of weight-for-height is commonly used to classify your obesity in adults.

KEY POINTS:

According to WHO.

• In 2014, more than 1.9 billion adults, 18 years and older, were overweight. Of these over 600 million were obese.
• 39% of adults aged 18 years and over were overweight in 2014, and 13% were obese.
• Most of the world’s population live in countries where overweight and obesity kills more people than underweight

Overweight can be managed by exercise and diet but when people become severe obese, it is very hard to treat with diet and exercise alone. Bariatric surgery may be the next step for people who remain severely obese after tying approaches other than surgery, especially if they have a disease linked with obesity.