General Definition of Obesity

General Definition of Obesity
Obesity is generally defined as the abnormal or excessive accumulation of fat in adipose tissue to the extent that health may be impaired.

Measuring the level of adipose tissue and determining when it is likely to affect health is not an easy task.

Quantification of adipose tissue mass can be achieved by a number of laboratory methods including underwater body density measurement and body fat content estimated by dual energy X-ray absorptiometer.

In addition, the development of new techniques, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT), has provided researchers with the opportunities to describe human adiposity in more detail.

However, most of these methods require costly equipment meaning that there is limited to clinical research setting.

In large scale population surveys and clinical/public health screening, an index of body weight adjusted for stature is commonly used as a surrogate for body fat content.

These indices are defined as different combinations of weight and height, such as weight divided by height or are defined as weight expressed as a percentage of mean weight divide by height or are defined as weight expressed as a percentage of mean weight for a given height and sex.

The most widely used in Quetelet’s index, better known as body mass index (BMI), which is body weight (kg) divided by height squared (meter square). This index has been shown to correlate weakly with height and strongly with body fatness in adults.

Determining the weight status status and level of adiposity in children and adolescent is even more problematical.

This is a stage of rapid growth and development.

During growth in childhood and adolescence, not only does height increase but body composition changes as well, thus classification of obesity according to a single measure is difficult.

In addition, international or regional weight status standards for children and adolescents may be less reliable as the age of onset of puberty and its associated physical changes often varies between different countries, ethnic groups or cultures.
General Definition of Obesity

Obesity and Weight Loss

Obesity and Weight Loss
Obesity clearly poses a danger to health, have been associated with numerous health problems, including heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and certain types of cancer.

However, diets for weight loss have been shown to be ineffective and even damaging to health.

A well balanced that avoids the wrong dietary fats, refined sugars, and excess calories (which all contribute to weight gain), regular exercise, drinking adequate amounts of pure water and stress reduction can help maintain a healthy weight.

Weight loss has become a national obsession in America. As many as 40% of women and 24% of men in the U.S are trying to loose weight at any given time through such diverse methods as diets, special dietary supplements, exercise, behavior modifications and drugs.

While this obsession is often fueled by psychological needs (the urge to conform to an artificial of beauty fostered by media, fashion and peer pressure) rather than physical needs, it is estimated that 97 millions Americans are overweight.

Excess weight has been linked to a number of health problems, including high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, gallbladder disease, respiratory conditions, as well as breast, endometrial and uterine cancers in women and cancer of the colon and rectum in men.

In fact, 85% of Type II diabetes cases are attributed to obesity, along with 45% of hypertension, 35% of heart disease and 18% of high cholesterol.

Obesity has also been shown to result in a decreased life span for both women and men and may be contributing factor in as many as 300,000 deaths each year.

The answers to weight gain and weight loss, though, are not always simple and easy.

Under controlled settings, most people trying to lose weight are usually able to lose about 10% of their total body weight, but up to two thirds of that weight is regained within a year.

To achieve significant and permanent weight loss, you need to come up with a plan – incorporating healthier eating, exercise, and stress reduction.
Obesity and Weight Loss

Breakfast: The most Important Meal

Breakfast: The most Important Meal
You will notice marked improvements in mood and energy, with fewer cravings for junkfood, when you eat a breakfast that is high in water, protein, good carbs (loaded with antioxidants) and healthy fats.

But many people who struggle with their weight often skip breakfast altogether or have a light breakfast consisting of something like a glass of juice with bagel, a piece of toast or a bowl of cornflakes.

The typical American breakfast is essentially pure carbohydrate that is quickly absorbed and leads to a spike in blood sugar followed by a compensatory spike in insulin. This stimulates a steep fall in blood sugar, leaving you famished and sluggish by mid morning and susceptible to cravings for doughnuts, pastries, cookies, and junk foods and sugary drinks from the vending machines that are ubiquitous in the workplace.

This eating style is a vicious cycle that forces you to mindlessly consume excess calories leading t0 obesity, aging and disease. Instead, have a forever young breakfast with protein (eggs, whey protein, fish, or meat) and high nutrient, fiber rich foods (fruits, nuts, berries or veggies), and wash it down with tea, water, soymilk, or nonfat milk.

The rest of the morning you will walk straight by the box of doughnuts at work feeling compelled to indulge your self.

There was a study found that the breakfast bunch received four important benefits:

• Lower BMI (average body weight)
• Reduced risks of diabetes, metabolic problems and obesity
• Better long term weight loss maintenance
• Improved mental alertness throughput the day
  

Breakfast jumpstart your system when you roll out of bed in the morning by increasing your metabolic rate about 25 percent. This revs your energy up and improves your ability to perform both physically and mentally.

On the other hand, people skip breakfasts are stick in the hibernation mode and often plagued with the consequences of a slow metabolism like obesity, constant fatigue or sluggishness and chronically feeling cold.

Snacks eaten before bedtime are more likely to be converted to body fat while you sleep. In contrast, breakfast calories can be burned throughout the day supplying you with the energy you need to perform your best.
Breakfast: The most Important Meal

Dietary Fiber

Dietary Fiber
Recognition of dietary fiber as an important food component was reawakened in the mid 1970s. Since the simple notion that “roughage” relieves constipation has been replaces by the concept of an active dietary fiber with its many possible implications for general health. Result from the extensive research devoted to the dietary fiber during the last 15 or so years have suggested this food component may be quiet important in the prevention and management of a wide variety of disease states. Not surprisingly, fiber has been implicated as important in various aspect of bowel function. The metabolic diseases, diabetes and obesity, are believed by some researches s to be more easily regulated with high fiber and fiber supplemented diets. Fiber has also has been implicated in the control or prevention of variety of carcinomas as well as certain diseases affecting the cardiovascular system.

The varying aspects of the fiber observed by researches are related to the fact that dietary fiber is made up of different compositions, each with its own distinctive characteristics. Delineation of these many components plus their various, distinctive characteristics emphasizes fact that dietary fiber cannot be considered a single entity.

Food components figures of fiber traditionally have referred to crude fiber, primarily cellulose, rather than being inclusive for the various component making up dietary fiber.
Dietary Fiber