Obestiy

Obesity is a term used by medical personnel to describe someone who is overweight and has a large amount of fat content.

Obesity can be measured by a person’s body mass index (BMI) which takes into consideration a person’s weight and height. A BMI between 30 and 40 would mean that that person would be considered as obese. A healthy BMI is between 18 and 24. Above and below this range is considered to be unhealthy due to lack or overindulgence in food.

Obesity is a huge burden on health services as obesity increases the chances of a person developing other diseases such as Type II diabetes, heart disease and types of cancer[4].
Obesity is mainly caused by a person ‘input’ being more than their ‘output’ i.e. they eat more calories than what they burn off. Hence, some calories are unused and the body stores this as fat[6]. Lifestyle factors contribute greatly to obesity. A diet highly processed, high in fat, sugar and salt is more likely to cause obesity than a balanced and healthy diet.

Weight gain can also be triggered by a variety of conditions such as polycystic ovary syndrome[7].

National Health Service (NHS), Obesity conditions profile. Available at: http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/obesity/pages/introduction.aspx (last accessed 30.11.2012)