Obesity:The state of being well above one's normal weight.
A person has traditionally been considered to be obese if they are more than 20 percent over their ideal weight. That ideal weight must take into account the person's height, age, sex, and build.
Obesity has been more precisely defined by theNational Institutes of Health(theNIH) as a BMI of 30 and above. (A BMI of 30 is about 30 pounds overweight.)
The BMI (body mass index), a key index for relating body weight to height, is a person's weightinkilograms (kg) divided by their height in meters (m)squared. Since the BMI describes the body weight relative to height, it correlates strongly (in adults) with the total bodyfatcontent. Some very肌肉发达的people may have a high BMI without unduehealthrisks.
Obesity is oftenmultifactorial, based on bothgeneticand behavioral factors. Accordingly, treatment of obesity usually requires more than just dietary changes. Exercise, counseling and support, and sometimesmedicationcan supplement diet to help patients conquer weight problems. Extreme diets, on the other hand, can actually contribute to increased obesity.
Overweightis a significant contributor to health problems. It increases the risk of developing a number of diseases including:
- Type 2 (adult-onset) diabetes
- High blood pressure (hypertension)
- Stroke (cerebrovascular accident orCVA)
- Heart attack (myocardial infarction orMI)
- Heart failure (congestive heart failure)
- Cancer (certain forms such as cancer of the prostate and cancer of the colon andrectum)
- Gallstones and gallbladderdisease(cholecystitis)
- Gout and gouty arthritis
- Osteoarthritis (degenerative arthritis) of the knees, hips, and the lower back
- Sleep apnea (failure to breath normally during sleep, loweringbloodoxygen)
- Pickwickian syndrome(obesity, red face,underventilation, and drowsiness).
