Obesity and Body Mass Index

Obesity is an excess proportion of total body fat. A person is considered obese when his or her weight is 20% or more above normal weight.

The most common measure of obesity is the Body Mass Index (BMI).

Body Mass Index (BMI) can be used to indicate if you are overweight, obese, underweight or normal.

It is designed for men and women between the ages of 18 and 65 years.

BMI is determined by your weight in kilograms divided by your height (in metres squared).

You can calculate your BMI by using our BMI Calculator and decide if you are at a healthy weight.

Obesity is not something new. This real problem has been around for a long time. But now the world is facing an accelerating pandemic of obesity. The World Health Organization estimates that the worldwide number of obese adults could grow from 400 million today to roughly 700 million by 2015.

Obesity is a chronic severe disease that can lead to different health problems such as heart attacks, stroke diabetes and hormonal disturbances. It is known that an excess body weight by 10% increases death rate in average by 30%.

A person’s weight is a result of many factors such as environment, family history and genetics, metabolism, unhealthy eating habits, lack of exercise and other factors. We can’t change our family history but we can change our lifestyle habits.

We must follow a healthful diet and burn off more calories through physical activity.

However, when obese people are unable to lose weight using these techniques, medications may be prescribed to achieve a healthier weight.

Anti-obesity drugs in these cases can serve to jump-start the weight loss process.