It’s been seen that the number of obese cases is increasing alarmingly and it is a problem for the world. Obesity affects millions worldwide and drives health conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, and many cancers. Worldwide obesity has tripled from 1975. In 2016, more than 1.9 billion adults, 18 years and older, were overweight. Of these over 650 million were obese. 39% of adults aged 18 years and over were overweight in 2016, and 13% were obese. Most of the world’s population live in countries where overweight and obesity kills more people than underweight. 38 million children under the age of 5 were overweight or obese in 2019. Over 340 million children and adolescents aged 5-19 were overweight or obese in 2016.
Now let’s see how we can define obesity. Obesity is the situation in the human body with excess weight or excess fat accumulation that can hamper health. Body mass index (BMI) is a common indicator of weight commonly used to classify overweight and esp. It is divided into square meters (kg / m2) of a person’s weight meter in kilograms.
WHO has set up some standards in adults and children to indicate whether they are obese or not and they are:
For adults:
- Overweight is a BMI greater than or equal to 25; and
- Obesity is a BMI greater than or equal to 30.
For children under 5 years:
- Overweight is weight-for-height greater than 2 standard deviations above the WHO Child Growth Standards median; and
- Obesity is weight-for-height greater than 3 standard deviations above the WHO Child Growth Standards median.
For children between 5-19:
- Overweight is BMI-for-age greater than 1 standard deviation above the WHO Growth Reference median; and
- Obesity is greater than 2 standard deviations above the WHO Growth Reference median.
What causes obesity and overweight?
The basic cause of obesity and obesity is the imbalance of energy between the calories consumed and the calories consumed. Globally, it has been an increased intake of high-fat foods and sugars; and an increase in physical inactivity due to the increasingly sedentary nature of many work modes, changing modes of transportation, and an increase in urbanization.
Changes in diet and exercise patterns are often the result of environmental and social changes associated with the development and lack of supportive policies in sectors such as health, agriculture, transportation, urban planning, the environment, food processing, distribution, marketing, and education.