Obesity - The American EpidemicWritten by Shelley Hitz
Obesity – What is it? Obesity is a disease that affects approximately 60 million people in United States, where women are especially affected. Over one-third of women between ages of 20 and 74 are obese, majority of them being African American or Mexican American. With more and more pre-packaged food and less and less activity, number of obese people in America has steadily increased since 1960’s. But what is obesity? Many people think obesity means that a person is overweight, but that’s not exactly true. An overweight person has a surplus amount of weight that includes muscle, bone, fat, and water. An obese person has a surplus of body fat. Most health professionals concur that a man is obese if he has over 25 percent body fat, and a woman is obese if she has over 30 percent. Women physiologically have more body fat than men, so that why there’s a difference in percentage. It is difficult to determine exact percentage of body fat a person has, but estimates can be made in a number of ways. First, using a tweezer-like tool called a caliper, you can measure thickness of skin folds on different points of your body and compare results with standardized numbers. You can also use a small device that sends a harmless electrical current through your body and measures your body fat percentage. The most commonly used method to determine if a person is obese is to look at his/her Body Mass Index (BMI). A person with a BMI over 30 is considered to be obese, and a BMI over 40 is considered to be severely obese. It’s important to remember though that BMI could be misleading in pregnant or lactating women and in muscular individuals. There are some free tools to find your body fat percentage at http://www.abs-exercise-advice.com/body-fat-calculator.html.
| | Understand the Science of Obesity And You're On Your Way Written by Wan Ibrahim
Many people think obesity means that a person is overweight, but that's not exactly true. An overweight person has a surplus amount of weight that includes muscle, bone, fat and water. An obese person has a surplus of body fat. Body Mass Index (BMI) is commonly used to determine if a person is obese or not. A person with a BMI over 30 is considered to be obese, and a BMI over 40 is considered to be severely obese. Factors such as poor diet, lack of physical activity, genetics and certain medical disorders cause obesity, but it can be conquered. Eating Disorder Obesity itself is not an eating disorder, but people who are obese or who fear becoming obese may develop one. There are three type of eating disorder:- Binge eating - binge eaters eat uncontrollably and quickly eating an unusually large amount of food at one sitting. They eat mostly sugar and fat. As a result, they may lack certain vitamins and nutrients. Bulimia nervosa - bulimics binge eat, usually in secret, then purge to get rid of calories just eaten. They may also exercise intensely for long periods of time to burn off extra calories, or they may go for long periods of time without eating. Anorexia nervosa - anorexics literally starve themselves due to an intense fear of being fat. Their bodies are severely depleted of nutrients. As a result, they develop muscular atrophy, dehydration, low blood pressure and organ damage to name a few. Because anorexia is so life threatening, first stage of treatment is getting body weight back to normal. Treatments for eating disorder include therapy and medications. Fat & Cholesterol For years we heard that a low-fat, low-cholesterol diet would keep us healthy and help us lose weight. And many of us jumped on bandwagon, eliminating fat and high-cholesterol foods from our diets. Well, unfortunately,we were doing it all wrong. Instead of eliminating fat completely, we should have been eliminating "bad fats," fats associated with obesity and heart disease and eating "good fats," fats that actually help improve blood cholesterol levels. Dietary Treatments Americans spends millions of dollars each year on diet books,products, and weight-loss plans. But, why aren't they working? Because people are doing wrong things! These popular diets often offer promises of quick weight-loss with no hunger, and majority of those dieters who do succeed end up gaining weight back within a year.
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