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| SOURCE: informationng.com |
Obesity occurs over time when you eat more calories than you use. The balance between calories-in and calories-out differs for each person. Factors that might affect your weight include your genetic makeup, overeating, eating high-fat foods, and not being physically active.
Being obese increases your risk of diabetes, heart disease, stroke, arthritis, and some cancers. If you are obese, losing even 5 to 10 percent of your weight can delay or prevent some of these diseases. For example, that means losing 10 to 20 pounds if you weigh 200 pounds.
There are many ways in which a person's health in relation to their weight can be classified, but the most widely used method is body mass index (BMI).
BMI is a measure of whether you're a healthy weight for your height. You can use the BMI healthy weight calculator to work out your score.
For most adults, a BMI of:
18.5 to 24.9 means you're a healthy weight
25 to 29.9 means you're overweight
30 to 39.9 means you're obese
40 or above means you're severely obese
BMI isn't used to definitively diagnose obesity, because people who are very muscular sometimes have a high BMI without excess fat. But for most people, BMI is a useful indication of whether they're a healthy weight, overweight or obese.
A better measure of excess fat is waist circumference, which can be used as an additional measure in people who are overweight (with a BMI of 25 to 29.9) or moderately obese (with a BMI of 30 to 34.9).
Generally, men with a waist circumference of 94cm (37in) or more and women with a waist circumference of 80cm (about 31.5in) or more are more likely to develop obesity-related health problems.
Risks of obesity
It's very important to take steps to tackle obesity because, as well as causing obvious physical changes, it can lead to a number of serious and potentially life-threatening conditions, such as:
type 2 diabetes
coronary heart disease
some types of cancer, such as breast cancer and bowel cancer
stroke
Obesity can also affect your quality of life and lead to psychological problems, such as depression and low self-esteem (see below for more information about the health problems associated with obesity).
Causes
Obesity can be overcome to a great extent by proper living
and eating. It is made worse by wrong habits of eating, excessive starch, fatty
foods, and sugar in the diet; also a lack of exercise. The basic reason for
most cases of obesity is simply taking into the body more calories than are
used in daily living. A small number of cases are due to a disturbance in the
functions of the thyroid or pituitary glands.
Symptoms
Excessive fat, shortness of breath, palpitation of the heart
upon slight exertion.
Treatment
Reduce the calories in the diet, and eat only nourishment
and nonfattening foods. Start exercising moderately, slowly increasing in
vigor, and always in the open air if possible. In order to lose weight you must
use up more calories than you take in. Oxygen burns up fat and waste matter in
the system; therefore, deep breathing and exercise are essential. Chickweed is
especially helpful to those suffering from obesity, as it thoroughly cleanses
the system and will reduce fat. Steep a heaping teaspoon of a cup of boiling
water. Drink at least four cups a day, one an hour before each meal and one on
retiring. If there are other troubles, clear them up with the herbs indicated.
Seawrack, burdock, and nettle can also be used with good results.
Great care must be exercised when using commercially
prepared weight reduction formulas that are being widely promoted at the
present time. Several deaths have been caused by using these preparations.
