Obesity

Obesity

• "Obesity" is a condition of excess body fat, which puts a person at increased risk for developing heart disease, Type II diabetes, osteoarthritis, high blood pressure and asthma.
• Obesity is the result of the body's inability to balance calorie intake and energy expenditure.
• 55% of all adult Americans - 100 million people - are overweight.
• One out of three adult Americans is obese.
• In the next 10 years, 70 to 80 percent of all heart disease deaths will occur in people with Type II diabetes, a condition I call "diabesity" since Type II diabetes is so frequently associated with obesity. In fact, obesity is the number one cause of Type II diabetes.
• Half of all cases of hypertension are attributed to obesity.
• Obesity can be evaluated several ways:

1. A measurement called body mass index (BMI). BMI is a simple calculation based on height and weight. A person is considered overweight if their BMI > 25 and obese if their BMI > 30. To calculate your BMI, multiply weight in pounds by 704.5 and divide this number by height in inches squared or click here www.4Meridia.com for an easy-to-use BMI calculator.

2. Measuring total waist circumference. A waist circumference more than 40 inches in men and more than 35 inches in women signifies increased risk in those with a BMI of greater than 25.

3. Consideration of other disease risk factors associated with obesity (e.g., diabetes and hypertension).

• An estimated 97 million Americans (55 percent of the U.S. population) are overweight or obese -- 59 million are overweight and 38 million are obese.
• Over the past 20 years, the number of children who are overweight has increased by more than 50 percent. The number of obese children has nearly doubled.
• Forty percent of non-Hispanic Blacks and nearly one quarter of Mexican Americans are obese.
• Obesity rates among African-American girls are the fastest growing among any demographic group in the country.
• Obesity-related costs in the US add up to nearly $100 billion annually in costs for weight-loss treatment and the treatment of many serious health problems caused or worsened by obesity, such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
• Americans spend an estimated $33 billion each year on reduced-fat foods, diet aids and weight-loss programs.
• Each year, an estimated 300,000 US adults die of causes attributable to obesity.
• Type II diabetes is nearly 3-4 times more prevalent in overweight adults than in lean adults.
• The number of deaths from cardiovascular disease is 50 percent higher in obese people (and 90 percent higher in the severely obese) than in the non-obese.
• Men who are more than 20 percent overweight have a 20-30 percent increase in death from prostate cancer.
• A recent study in Diabetes Care noted that for every kilogram of increase in measured weight, the risk of diabetes increased by 4.5 percent.
• A recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine stated that the women in the study who were non-smokers, not overweight, ate properly and exercised had an 83 percent less chance of developing coronary heart disease than those who did not adhere to a low-risk lifestyle.
• The heaviest adults are 80 percent more likely to have asthma than the thinnest ones.
• A weight loss of five to 10 percent in excess body weight, followed by maintenance of that loss, can reduce risk factors and provide health benefits.