Ailments and Situations - Obesity

 
Description

Simply put, obesity is an excess of body fat. A commonly used demarcation is that a person is obese if s/he weighs 20% or more over the maximum desirable weight for his/her height and build.

Some calculations are more sophisticated and are also based on body fat percentage, which can be measured using specialized instruments or scales. The scale, which can be stood upon like a traditional scale, measures your body fat percentage by sending electrodes through your body. The electrodes move at different speeds through fat tissue and lean muscle mass and accurately gauge the percentage of fat carried by your body. Up to 18% body fat is healthy for men and 25% is a healthy maximum for women. Opinions concerning a healthy minimum body fat percentage vary greatly. For instance, marathon runners and competitive body builders often fall off the charts and there is great debate as to whether those body types are considered "healthy".

Other definitions of obesity are more qualitative and consider people to be obese only if their pattern of fat distribution increases their likelihood of acquiring certain diseases. Whatever the definition, obesity has become an increasingly greater problem in North America, where one third of the population is considered dangerously overweight -- and this is despite growing trends of fad diets and "miracle cures". We collectively spend billions of dollars each year on diet products and programs yet we are gaining more weight. The concern is not merely one of aesthetics: obesity, along with all its complications, is second only to smoking as the greatest killer in North America.

 

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