Obesity

What is Obesity?

Obesity is defined as an accumulation of fat (adipose tissue) beyond what is considered normal for a person’s age, sex, and body type. In an attempt to clarify obesity even further, experts labeled people who were 20 to 40 percent above their ideal weight as mildly obese (90% of the obese fit into this category). Those 41 to 99 percent above their ideal weight have been described as moderately obese (about 9%-10% of the obese), and those who are 100 percent or more above their ideal weight are identified as severely, morbidly, or grossly obese (about 1% of the obese.)

Although most of us continually try to reduce our body fat, there are levels below which we dare not go. A minimal amount of body fat is necessary for insulation of the body, for cushioning between parts of the body and vital organs, and maintaining body functions.

How to evaluate your body content and weight?

A number of measures exist for calculating body content, and some provide a very precise reading or calculation of your body fat. Others are less sophisticated but are based on factors that have been identified as key indicators for assessing body content.

Body Mass Index:

In recent years, body mass index (BMI) has emerged as the medical standard used to define obesity. BMI is an index of the relationship of height and weight and is one of the most accurate indicators of a person’s health risk due to excessive weight, rather than "fatness" perse. Calculating your BMI involves dividing your weight in kilograms by your height in meters squared. For example if your weight is 100 kg and your height is 180 centimeters. First convert the 180 cm to meters which will be 1.8 meters. Then square the 1.8 meters, it will be 1.8 x 1.8 = 3.24. Now you have 2 values:

1. Your weight in Kg = 100
2. Your squared height in meters= 3.24
3. Now divide 100 by 3.24 = 100 / 3.24 = 30.86 which is your BMI

Healthy weights have been defined as those associated with BMIs of 19 to 25, the range of lowest statistical health risk. A BMI greater than 27 indicates obesity and potentially significant health risks.

Other techniques which can be used by healthcare professionals for assessing your body content:

1. Hydrostatic weighing techniques: Methods of determining body fat by measuring the amount of water displaced when a person is completely submerged.
2. Pinch test: A method of determining body fat whereby a fold of skin just behind the triceps is pinched between the thumb and index finger to determine the relative amount of fat.
3. Skin fold caliper test: A method of determining body fat whereby folds of skin and fat at various points on the body are grasped between thumb and forefinger and measured with calipers.
4. Girth and circumference measures: A method of assessing body fat that employs a formula based on girth measurements of various body sites.
5. Soft-tissue roentgenogram: A technique of body fat assessment in which radioactive substances are used to determine relative fat.
6. Bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA): A technique of body fat assessment in which electrical currents are passed through fat and lean tissue.
7. Total body electrical conductivity (TOBEC): Technique using an electromagnetic force field to assess relative body fat.

Research has identified a number of factors that contribute to obesity that may offer some answers:

Heredity (Genes)

Many scientists have explored the role of heredity in determining human body shapes. Some statistics showed that 80 percent of children having two obese parents are also obese. This was proved by studying identical twins that were separated at birth and raised in different environments. Whether raised in family environments with fat or thin family members, twins with obese natural parents tend to be obese in later life. Research has pointed to the existence of a special "fat gene." The most promising candidate is the Ob gene (for obesity), which is believed to disrupt the body’s signaling system for satiety and may prompt individuals to keep eating past the point of being comfortably full.

Abnormal satiety centers in the hypothalamus:

In the obese person, it is possible that the monitoring system for satiety does not work properly and that the cues to eat are more frequent and intense than they are in people of normal weight.

Other sources indicate that thin people may send more effective messages to the hypothalamus. This concept, known as adaptive thermogenesis, states that thin people can often consume large amounts of food without gaining weight because the appetite center of their brains speeds up metabolic activity to compensate for the increased consumption. People generally feel satiated, or full, when they have satisfied their nutritional needs and their stomach signals "no more." For undetermined reasons, obese people may not feel full until much later than thin people.

Developmental Factors

Some obese people may have excessive numbers of fat cells. This type of obesity known as hyperplasia, usually begins to develop in early childhood and perhaps, due to the mothers dietary habits, even prior to birth. The most critical periods for the development of hyperplasia seem to be the last two to three months of fetal development, the first year of life, and between the ages of 9 and 13. Parents who allow their children to eat without restrictions and to become overweight may be setting their children up for a lifelong excess of fat cells. Weight gain may be tied to both the number of fat cells in the body and the capacity of each individual cell to enlarge. People who add large numbers of fat cells to their bodies in childhood may be able to lose weight by decreasing the size of each cell in adulthood, but the large numbers of cells remain, and with the next calorie binge, they fill up and sabotage weight—loss efforts.

Set point Theory

States that a persons body has a set point of weight at which it is programmed to be comfortable. If your set point is around 160 pounds, you will gain and lose weight fairly easily within a given range of that point. For example, if you gain 5 to 10 pounds on vacation, it will be fairly easy to lose that weight and remain around the 160 pound mark for a long period of time.

Endocrine Influence

Over the years, many people have attributed obesity to problems with the thyroid glands. However, only 3 to 5 percent of the obese population has a thyroid problem.

Psychosocial Factors

In mainstream America, eating tends to be a focal point of peoples lives, and the comfort foods of childhood may provide a salve for painful social pressures. Eating is essentially a social ritual associated with companionship, celebration, and enjoyment. The office party complete with snacks and the picnic at the park all center on eating. Is it any wonder that for many people the social emphasis on the eating experience is a major obstacle to successful dieting?

Food industry

At least one major factor in our preoccupation with food is the pressure placed on us by the highly sophisticated, heavily advertised "eating" campaigns launched by the food industry. An increasing percentage of the foods we eat are from Fast food restaurants. This is unfortunate because (1) fast food is high in calories, fat, sodium, and carbohydrates; (2) it tendsto get eaten, even though portions are often much bigger than they should be; and (3) it tends to be eaten quickly so there isn’t enough time for the ‘“I’m full" signal to get to your brain before the last bite of food is eaten.

Lifestyle

Of all the factors affecting obesity perhaps the most critical is the relationship between activity levels and calorie intake.  You probably know someone who seems to be able to eat you under the table and does not appear to exercise more than you do, yet never seems to gain weight. If you were to follow this person around for a typical day and monitor the level and intensity of activity you might find that although the persons schedule may not include strenuous exercise, it probably includes a high level of activity Walking up a flight of stairs rather than taking the elevator, speeding up the pace while mowing the lawn, and doing housework vigorously all burn extra calories.  Clearly any form of activity that helps your body burn additional calories helps you maintain your weight.

Gender and Obesity:

Compared with men, women have a lower ratio of lean body mass to fatty mass, in part due to differences in bone size and mass, muscle size, and other variables. For all ages after sexual maturity, men have higher metabolic rates, making it easier for them to burn off excess calories than it is for women. Women also face greater potential for weight fluctuation due to hormonal changes, pregnancy and other conditions that increase the likelihood of weight gain. Also, as a group, men are more socialized into physical activity from birth. Strenuous activity in both work and play are encouraged for men, while women roles have typically been more sedentary and required a lower level of caloric expenditure to complete. Not only are women more vulnerable to weight gain, but also pressures to maintain and/or lose weight make them more likely to take dramatic measures to lose weight.

How to manage and control your weight

At some point in our lives, almost all of us will go on a diet and at a certain point, we will be left scratching our heads and wondering why we can’t seem to find the diet that works. It has been well documented that (low-calorie) diets produce only temporary losses and may actually produce eating disorders. Drugs and intensive counseling have contributed to positive weight losses, but even then, weight is often regained after treatment. The failure to produce lasting weight loss and the subsequent reduction of self-esteem have led some health professionals to focus on optimizing psychological and physical health rather than on weight loss.

What is the criteria of a successful weight loss  program?

1. Helping people establish tolerable, enjoyable, and stable eating and exercise patterns
2. Focusing on small gains and benefits to health and well- being initially; later focusing on long-term functional improvements, improvements in energy, and reduced risk from disease
3. Establishing maintainable goals
4. Making a lifetime commitment to a healthful lifestyle that includes exercise, food choices, and stress management
5. Improving access to low—cost, healthful foods and broadening one’s perspective on food possibilities
6. Deemphasizing food as a central focus and learning to enjoy other activities that bring joy

Whether dieting  for vanity or for your health, it’s important to begin by finding a program of exercise and healthy eating behaviors that will work for you now and in the long term.

Six Tips to modify your Eating Habits:

Before you can change a given behavior, you must first determine what causes that behavior. Why do you suddenly find yourself at the refrigerator door eating everything in sight? Why do you take that second and third helping of potatoes or dessert when you know that you should be trying to lose weight? Once you recognize the factors that cause you to eat, removing the triggers or substituting other activities for them will help you develop more sensible eating patterns. Here are some examples of substitute behaviors:

1. When eating dinner, turn off all distractions, including the television and radio.
2. Replace snack breaks or coffee breaks with exercise breaks.
3. Instead of gulping your food, force yourself to chew each bite slowly
4. Vary the time of day when you eat. Instead of eating by the clock, do not eat until you are truly hungry
5. lf you find that you generally eat all that you can cram on a plate, use smaller plates.
6. lf you find that you are continually seeking your favorite foods in the cupboard, stop buying them, or place them in a spot that is very inconvenient to reach.