While we’re all a little guilty of gaining a few extra pounds from time to time, obesity is a far more serious condition. This is the heavy accumulation of fat in the body which increases your risk of other health problems and can seriously damage your health, knocking years off your life. Obesity increases your risk of stroke, diabetes, heart disease and even some cancers, as well as affecting your self-confidence and self-esteem. In order to determine how bad your obesity is, you should work out your BMI, or body mass index, which will place you on a scale of seriously underweight, healthy, and obese. This is the most accurate way to determine your risk of obesity as it takes into account your height as well as your weight – naturally, if you’re a very tall person you will weigh more than someone who’s shorter. This is the measure that doctors and medical professionals use when assessing obesity. You can work out your BMI by taking your weight in kg and dividing it by the square of your height in metres. For example, if you weigh 80kg and are 1.7m, you can multiply these two figures and divide your weight by the resulting figure – this will give you your BMI, which in this case would be 27.7. There are numerous BMI calculators on the web which can work out this figure for you, as well. The significance of this figure will also depend on your body shape – whether you’re pear or apple-shaped. If you’re a woman, your ideal waist measurement is less than 80cm – 80cm to 88cm is high, and anything over 88cm is extremely high. For men, the ideal figure for your waist is 94cm – 94cm to 102cm is high and 102cm or over is extremely high. If you have a BMI over 25, you should consider losing some weight.
Over 12 million people are classified as obese, and this crisis is only getting worse, leading more and more people to an early death and a life of poor lifestyles, illnesses and health complaints. Among the psychological and emotional effects of obesity, including poor self-esteem and depression, you will also suffer from difficulties breathing, problems walking or running, increased sweating, painful joints and back, skin conditions such as acne, and gallstones. They may also have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, osteoarthritis and certain cancers. While obesity can be hereditary, it’s commonly caused by your lifestyle – a sedentary lifestyle coupled with a poor diet will increase your risk of developing obesity. There are some medications, such as antidepressants and oral contraceptives, which can also lead to weight gain.
Overcoming obesity is not an easy thing to do, but it is possible with dedication and willpower. It’s never easy to make changes to your diet, as you become accustomed to the types of food in your diet, but your GP will firstly recommend a better diet and more exercise – these are the foundations of any weight loss plan, regardless of what diet you’re following. A poor diet and a lack of exercise is the fastest way to become unhealthy and overweight, so these are the factors you need to change first and foremost. If you’ve attempted to lose weight with these methods and failed, and your obesity is severe, you may wish to opt for a surgical route. There a various weight loss procedures, including stomach stapling and gastric bands, which can enable you to limit your food intake by making the size of your stomach smaller. These are not a quick and easy route though, and are only available to those with severe obesity.