Obesity

Today, more than 65 percent of adults in the United States are overweight or obese. However, obesity puts people at increased risk for chronic diseases such as heart disease,

Type II Diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, and some forms of Cancer.

Obesity and the serious health risks that come with it makes understanding it’s cause and treatment crucial. Obesity specifically refers to an excessive amount of body fat. As a rule, women have more body fat than men. Most Health Care Professionals agree that men with more than 25 percent body fat and women with more than 30 percent fat are obese.

Obesity occurs when a person consumes more calories from food than he or she burns. Our bodies need calories to sustain life and be physically active, but to maintain weight we need to balance the energy we eat with the energy we use. This imbalance between calories-in and calories-out may differ from one person to another. Genetic, environmental, and other factors may all play a part.

Genetic Factors

Obesity tends to run if families, suggesting a genetic cause. The fact that families also share diet and lifestyle habits may contribute to obesity that tends to run in families.

Science does however, show a link between obesity and heredity. Separating genetic
factors from other influences is often difficult.

Environmental Factors

We know that environment strongly influences obesity. The fact that many people that are alive today, that were alive in the 1980’s when the obesity rates were much lower leads science to know that our genetic make-up has not changed, but our environment has.

Environment changes include lifestyle behaviors such as what a person eats and his or her level of physical activity. Too often Americans eat out, consume large meals and high-fat foods, and put taste and convenience ahead of nutrition. Also, most people in the United States do not get enough physical activity.

Although you cannot change your genetic makeup, you can work on changing your eating habits, levels of physical activity, and other environmental factors.

Are You Obese? What is you Body Mass Index?
A Body Mass Index (BMI) chart provides a useful guideline to check your BMI.

View your Body Mass Index here

EXCESS ABDOMINAL FAT is an important, independent risk factor for disease. Research has shown that waist circumference is directly associated with abdominal fat and can be used in the assessment of the risks associated with obesity.

Women with a waist measurement (abdominal circumference at the belly button) of more than 35 inches and men of more that 40 inches may have more health risks that people with lower waist measurements because of body fat distribution.