Obesity

Obesity is one of the major health problem that is quite common now a days. Obesity is a condition in which an individual's bodyweight is higher than the normal due to excess deposition of fat in the adipose tissue. The common cause obesity is the excess intake of foods than normal requirements and lesser physical activity. Excess food that consumed is converted into fat and stored in the adipose tissues. Obesity is very common among people living in Western countries and other developing countries. Excess intake of foods and increase in the bodyweight leads to some other major complications.

Predisposing factors and occurrence of obesity

Many factors contribute to the development of obesity. Some of these are discussed below:

Age and sex: Obesity can occur at any age in either sex. But the incidence is higher in persons who lead sedentary lives.

Economic status: Obesity is found more common among the higher status groups as they consume excess food and do less physical work than the low status groups.

Physical activity: Obesity occurs rarely among persons who do hard physical work. With the extensive use of transport facilities and mechanisation of industry, the proportion of people who lead sedentary lives has been increasing. And this will increases the chance for obesity.

Body weight assessment

Proneness to obesity: Some individuals are more prone to develop obesity than others. Recent study's about obesity  have shown that these individuals are having usually large proportion of adipose tissue cells compared with normal persons. These cells are filled with fat when there is an excess intake of food.

ASSESSMENT OF OBESITY

Obesity can be assessed by (1)body weight (2)estimation of total body fat (3)skin-fold measurements. A persons whose body weight is higher than normal by 20 percent may be considered as obese. An approximate classification of different degrees of obesity based on body weight is given below:

COMPLICATIONS OF OBESITY

Obesity leads to the development of several complications such as: (1)Physical disability, (2)Metabolic disorders, (3)Cardiac disorders, (4)Proneness to accidents and (5)Low life expectancy. Obese persons suffer more often from metabolic disorders such as diabetes mellitus, atherosclerosis and heart diseases. They meet with accidents more frequently. The life expectancy is also reduced in view of the above hazards.