Obesity is a medical condition in which excess body fat has accumulated to the point where it is posing a health risk. Body mass index is the most generally used metric for determining whether or not you have a healthy weight for your height. For most adults, a BMI of 18.5 to 24.9 indicates a healthy weight, 25 to 29.9 indicates overweight, 30 to 39.9 indicates obesity, and 40 or more indicates severe obesity. Because exceptionally muscular persons might have a high BMI without much fat, BMI is not utilized to diagnose obesity. However, for the vast majority of people, BMI is a good indicator of whether or not they are at a healthy weight.
Obesity must be addressed because, in addition to generating visible physical changes, it can lead to many serious and potentially life-threatening illnesses. Diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and some types of cancer are among them. Obesity can also harm your quality of life and cause psychological issues including sadness and low self-esteem.
Obesity has individual, socioeconomic, and environmental causes, including diet, frequency of eating, physical inactivity, genetics, medications, psychological illnesses, and exposure to obesogens. While the majority of obese people are aiming to reduce weight and are sometimes successful, research suggests that maintaining such weight loss over the long term is uncommon. The causes of weight cycling are unknown; however, they may involve lower energy expenditure mixed with an increased biological drive to eat during and after calorie restriction.
Obesity prevention necessitates a multi-faceted strategy that includes individual, family, and community interventions. The main treatments suggested by health professionals are dietary changes and exercise. Reduced consumption of energy-dense foods, such as those high in fat or sugar, and increased intake of dietary fiber can enhance diet quality. To suppress appetite or fat absorption, medications can be used in conjunction with a healthy diet. If diet, exercise, and medicine do not work, bariatric surgery may be used to reduce the size of the stomach or the length of the intestines, resulting in a faster sense of fullness or a reduced ability to absorb nutrients from food.
Obesity is a leading preventable cause of death in both adults and children around the world. More than 1.9 billion adults were overweight in 2016, with 650 million being obese. Each year, at least 2.8 million individuals die from being overweight or obese. Between 1975 and 2016, the prevalence of obesity nearly tripled. Women are more likely than men to be obese. It is considered by authorities to be one of the most important public health issues of the twenty-first century. Obesity was recognized as a disease by numerous medical groups in 2013, including the American Medical Association and the American Heart Association.