Obese

Welcome to Obese.org.uk

Obesity in general is loosely defined in the medical community as the step past being simply overweight when your weight starts to play a negative role in your overall life and health. Obesity is recognized in individuals who have a Body Mass Index that is over 30 (BMI is calculated by the ratio of your weight divided by your height). A BMI that is between 25 to 30 is considered overweight, over 30 is obese, and over 40 is considered morbidly obese.

Although many people struggle with weight issues, the simple reason why some people weigh more than others is fairly easy to understand. Weight is lost or gained depending on the amount of calories that you consume versus the amount of calories that are burnt each day.

The amount of calories that a person burns is called their metabolic rate which depends on the amount of activity a person participates in each day. Thus, an active person will have a higher metabolic rate, or disposition to burn calories than someone who is very inactive. This means that a healthy calorie count will be higher for the active person; which is why it may appear that some people can eat what they want without gaining weight and others cannot.

Obesity occurs in people who consume more calories than their body needs to use in one day. The body has a self-preserving feature in which it stores extra calories in the form of fat so that starvation does not occur in the future. As starvation is not common in developed countries, the body simply keeps storing unneeded fats until they cause a weight that is considered obese and extremely unhealthy.

In fact, obesity is defined by many health experts as one of the most concerning health problems in the western world as obesity brings with it a higher risk rate of developing cancer, stroke, infertility, osteoarthritis, diabetes, heart disease, and many other ailments.

In England, about 9,000 deaths a year are attributed to obesity alone and the rise in adult obesity rates has increased by over four times in just the last 25 years. Of the current UK population, about 66% of adults are considered to fall into either the overweight or obese category with both genders represented almost equally. Obesity does not just affect adults, as children are also increasing in the obesity category as over 10% of all six year olds are considered overweight and 17% of all 15 year olds are diagnosed as medically obese. Alarmingly, obesity in children is suspected to shorten lifespan by up to nine years and result in the early diagnosis of many diseases that previously only struck most people during middle age.

Immediate symptoms of being obese include excessive amounts of sweating, sleeping disorders, chronic fatigue, consistently fighting with breathlessness, and back and joint pains. Psychological problems such as low self-confidence, low self-esteem, and a feeling of isolation from society are also common in those that are diagnosed as obese.