Obesity

In years past, being overweight and even obese was a sign of prosperity and wealth. The more prosperity and wealth we had, the better we ate and the more corpulent we looked. Today, we look at body weight in just the opposite way. The smarter we are, the richer we are, the more visible we are, the thinner we want to be. We feel that our weight reflects on us as a person. Excess weight makes us look as though we don't take care of ourselves. When did this attitude change?

We often use the terms overweight and obesity interchangeably in speaking, but in fact they are quite different in meaning. An overweight person is defined as one who carries extra weight in the form of muscles, bones, water, and fat. An overweight person could be a competitive athlete who may have increased muscle mass or a person with short stature who may have a large bone structure. On the other hand, an obese person has an excess of body fat only. His or her weight is found in extra fat stores throughout various parts of the body

Currently it is estimated that almost 40 million Americans are obese—about one-third of all adults and one in five children. More than 50 percent of our entire population is considered overweight. As a result of this high incidence, obesity is reported to contribute to at least 300,000 excess deaths in this country and hundreds of million dollars in health care costs each year.

What is the difference between overweight and obesity? Overweight is the result of an excess of body weight that accumulates from body tissues like muscle, bone, fat, or water while an obesity state comes from the excess of body fat alone.