Obesity is a pandemic that doesn’t differentiate among skin color, age, socioeconomical status, sex, or geographical situation. Years ago a person who was overweight was considered to be healthy. Nowadays we know that obesity has many negative consequences.
Obesity is a public health problem that shows deep changes in society and in behavior.
Definition
Obesity and excess weight are defined as the abnormal accumulation of excess fat that may be detrimental to health, to the point where it can generate additional illnesses and elevate the person's risk of dying.
A simple way to measure obesity is by having a health care professional determine your body mass index; the result will show wether you are obese or overweight.
Causes and Risk Factors
Genetic predisposition and hormonal changes can make you gain weight, but the main cause of overweight is eating more calories than the ones you burn through exercise and daily activities. These excess calories are stored in your body as fat.
Below is a list of the things that contribute to weight gain:
Risk factors
You can also gain weight if your family members have similar eating and exercise habits, and similar lifestyles. You have more chances of becoming obese if one of your parents is obese.
Having one or more of these risk factors does not mean that you are going to be obese. You can reduce the effect of these factors with changes in your diet, exercise, and in your daily life.
Symptoms
Some of the symptoms or side effects of obesity are:
Quality of Life
Your life quality can also be affected due to obesity. Daily activities such as brushing your hair, kneeling down, dressing up, going to public places and other social activities can prove difficult to do when you are overweight. Your sexual life can also be affected.
This valuable information was taken from Dr. Pompa’s book “How much does your life weigh” in which she widely explains the topics related to Adult and Childhood Obesity, as well as the options for treating this disease.
