According to the NIH Consensus Report, morbid obesity is a serious chronic disease, meaning that its symptoms build slowly over an extended period of time. Today 97 million Americans, more than one-third of the adult population, are overweight or obese. An estimated 5-10 million of those are considered morbidly obese.
According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a person is considered "obese" when he or she weighs 20% or more than his or her ideal body weight. At that point, the person's weight poses a real health risk. Obesity becomes "morbid" when it significantly increases the risk of one or more obesity-related health conditions or serious diseases (also known as co-morbidities). Morbid obesity—sometimes called "clinically severe obesity"—is defined as being 100 pounds or more over ideal body weight or having a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 40 or higher.
To calculate your BMI do the following:
English BMI Formula
BMI = ( Weight in Pounds / ( Height in inches ) x ( Height in inches ) ) x 703
Metric BMI Formula
BMI = ( Weight in Kilograms / ( Height in Meters ) x ( Height in Meters ) )
Obesity is measured by an individual's Body Mass Index (BMI). BMI is a simple calculation based on a person's height and weight. A "normal" BMI falls between 22 and 25. A person with a BMI above 30 is considered obese, while a rating above 40 indicates morbid obesity.
Excessive body weight is associated with various diseases, particularly cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus type 2, obstructive sleep apnea, certain types of cancer, and osteoarthritis. As a result, obesity has been found to reduce life expectancy. The primary treatment for obesity is dieting and physical exercise. If this fails, anti-obesity drugs and (in severe cases) bariatric surgery can be tried.
A combination of excessive caloric intake, lack of physical activity, and genetic susceptibility is thought to explain most cases of obesity, with a limited number of cases due solely to genetics, medical reasons, or psychiatric illness.
With rates of adult and childhood obesity increasing, authorities view it as a serious public health problem. Between 1980-2000, obesity among adults has more than doubled; obesity among adolescents has tripled. In the US, obesity is the second-leading cause of preventable death after smoking.
To view ABC's Report on Obesity click here!
