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What Is Obesity?

Obesity may be defined as having so much extra body weight that it becomes harmful to the health of the person, and puts him or her in danger, which may lead to type II diabetes, heart diseases, high blood pressure, sleep apnea, arthritis as well as stroke. With such serious consequences to be faced, it becomes imperative for an obese person to immediately lose weight, even if he or she does not feel bad at the moment.

Bad Eating Habits That Should Be Curtailed Immediately

Obesity can be attributed to bad eating habits which require a planned effort to overcome. Obesity is a result of too much of accumulation of fat which is far in excess of what the body’s skeletal and physical standards permit. When a person exceeds by twenty percent the ideal body weight, this is considered a case of obesity.

When one wonders what obesity is, one will no doubt be told that it means having an unhealthy amount of body fat. No doubt, we all are in need of body fat, but an excess of it will lead to health problems, which can be measured by a tool referred to as Body Mass Index or BMI, which allows a person to estimate total body fat.

The main cause of obesity is certainly eating too much and/or not exercising enough or being generally inactive. Extra calories that are not burnt up through exercise or physical activities translate into fat, and when this fat becomes excessive, one will become obese. Obesity can also be due to factors such as genes, with obesity tending to run in families, metabolic rates or how the body processes food, ethnicity as well as age. These factors all contribute in our understanding of what obesity is and how to prevent and reverse it.

To ascertain whether or not you are obese you need to determine your Body Mass Index (BMI) by using weight and height; this correlates with the amount of body fat in your body. Typically, an adult who has a BMI of thirty or more will be considered obese. BMI is one tool to indicate potential health risks that are associated with obesity.

There are, of course, other methods of ascertaining whether or not you are obese or at risk for obesity. The easiest one is simply looking at yourself honestly in the mirror. What do you see? Does the image peering back at you appear healthy and fit? If not, it may be time to take some action to get yourself in shape so that you look and feel better and more importantly, will live a longer, healthier life.