What is Obesity?
Obesity is a condition that is associated with having an excess of body fat. The words overweight and obesity mean a person’s body weight is higher than what is considered healthy for their height. In general, people can become overweight or obese due to an imbalance of energy.
Energy in comes from calories in the food you eat, energy out is the number of calories your body burns during physical activity. Over time if your energy in, is less than your energy out, you will lose weight. If your energy in, is about the same as your energy out, your weight will stay the same. If your energy in, is greater than your energy out, you will gain weight.
How To Measure Obesity.
How can we assess if someone is obese or not? The following steps can help us to find out measure the obesity level of any person.
First measure the weight in kilograms and height in meters. Then take a square of the height. So the BMI would be:
Weight/ squared height. Explaining with the help of figures,
- Weight = 100 kilograms
- Height = 1.5 meters
- Squared height = 2.25 meters
- So BMI will be 100/2.25 = 44.444
The ideal BMI the ideal BMI all over the world, especially the Western world is up to 25 for Asians it’s now recommended that the ideal BMI is less than 23.5. Lets also look at the international numbers alright so if you have a BMI of 25 to 30 you are overweight 30 to 35 you’re obese and above 35 is called as morbid obesity.
Types of Obesity.
There are many types of obesity, but the 2 major types are the safe obesity and dangerous obesity. Safe obesity is muscular obesity. If you took the BMI of Arnold Schwarzenegger or Sylvester Stallone it’s not going to be 22 and 23 it’s going to be 27 or 28, but that’s a muscular obesity whereas if you took the BMI of someone like Michael Moore before his surgery his BMI would be 45 or 50 which was full of fat which is dangerous.
When obesity comes with Comorbidity factors like diabetes and hypertension it is much more dangerous for us than if we had obesity alone without diabetes or hypertension.
Obesity Treatment.
Obesity can be treated in two ways. One is with lifestyle modification of adjusting your diet and including exercise in your daily regimen if that fails then you can opt for surgery.
Eating the wrong foods is one of the primary reasons for obesity, so if you can cut down on eating high-fat foods and having high frequent meals and subjects to having a conditioned low-calorie diet you can combat obesity. Along with this one of the most important factor is to include a little bit of exercise in your daily regimen.
There are trained nutritionists who can help you combat weight and there are targeted trainers who can help you with targeted exercises for losing weight. If you can include 45
minutes of exercise at least four times a week you can definitely overcome with obesity.
There is no specific exercise that you need to do you don’t need to swim, you don’t need to run, you can do whatever it is that you can do, if you can do it consistently for 45 minutes four times a week then there is a very good chance that you can fight obesity.
Obesity Diet.
You can reduce the number of extra calories in your diet by making healthy food choices such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean meats. Limit unhealthy snacks and desserts. Avoid high-calorie fast food, by preparing food at home. Try to eat smaller portion meal 4 to 5 times a day which help the liver to digest food easily.
Surgical weight loss.
You may be put on weight loss medication for obesity if your BMI is thirty or more. If your BMI is twenty-seven or more along with obesity-related health problems such as diabetes, or high blood pressure, some weight loss medications prevent your body from taking in fat from the food.
There are two types of bariatric surgery options according to your health condition.
- Gastric Sleeve Surgery
- Roux-en Y gastric bypass
Your healthcare provider may advise a bariatric surgical procedure if your BMI is 40 or more. If your BMI is 35 or more and you also have obesity-related health problems during a sleeve gastrectomy procedure, your surgeon will remove most of your stomach. This leaves a smaller sleeve like tube about the size of a banana called a gastric sleeve the smaller gastric sleeve holds less food and makes you feel full more quickly.
During an adjustable gastric band procedure, your surgeon will place a band around the top of your stomach this makes a smaller pouch to hold food, as a result, you will feel full when eating smaller portions of food.
Another surgical procedure called a Roux-en-y gastric bypass. Your surgeon will close off the top of your stomach with staples this will create a small pouch, then a section of your small intestine will be attached to the small stomach pouch. This new connection bypasses most of your stomach as well as the part of your small intestine where most of the nutrients from the food you eat are absorbed, as a result, you will eat less food and your body won’t absorb as much of it.
After a bariatric procedure, it’s important to follow the dietary guidelines from your healthcare provider and to stay physically active.
